


Not Afraid

by DorothyOz



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-16
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-14 09:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 27,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/513669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DorothyOz/pseuds/DorothyOz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a series of one-shots that resolves around Jack’s and Janet’s relationship. It starts here with ‘Not Afraid’ that gives name to the whole series, because this short passage singlehanded created the series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Afraid

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the A/N at the beginning of the story, and enjoy! :D

**NOT AFRAID**

* * *

 

 

**A/N: please read**

**Title of the series:** Not Afraid

 **Summary:** This is a series of one-shots that resolves around Jack’s and Janet’s relationship. It starts here with ‘Not Afraid’ that gives name to the whole series, because this short passage singlehanded created it.

 **Genre:** Romance, AU, and a little bit of everything else

 **Season and spoilers:** 4 to 8

 **Pairing:** Jack/Janet

 **Rating:** K+ 

**Warnings:** Very small and very soft sexual innuendo. There won’t be sexual situations descriptive or otherwise.

**Disclaimer:** Read profile

**Acknowledgements:** Big thanks to my beta [wackyjacqs](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3876474/wackyjacqs) for her fantastic job.

 **Cover art:** [here](http://dorothyoz1939.livejournal.com/5027.html) and [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2310488)

* * *

 

****NOT AFRAID** **

* * *

**Chapter 1:** Not Afraid

 **Season/episode:**  season 4 - episode 2 - “The Other Side” 

* * *

 

I hear the impact on the iris, and I know that I’ve just executed a man. I did the right thing, I know it; but I look into her eyes, and she’s looking back at me with distaste and fear. She never knew who I am; now for the first time she sees my real nature, and she fears me. She turns her back to me, and walks away. With that I know that she will never be mine, I know that she will never love me, and I let her go because I can’t love a woman who fears me.

I stand on the ramp for what fells like hours. I feel the sorrow, the pain, the guilt and the darkness tied to my actions invade me. I close my eyes knowing that my team is no longer standing there, but when I open them a small brunette is standing by the closing blast door. She locks her eyes with mine, and walks slowly but determined towards me. I hear the impact of the blast door finally sealing the gate room, but all my focus is on her. I can do nothing but stare at her. _What is she doing? Why is she walking towards me? Hell! Why is she now standing on the ramp facing me?_ She’s mere inches away from me, and she’s looking up into my eyes. Such a petite woman, unarmed, defenseless… she’s vulnerable… I wouldn’t need a second to kill her, and she knows it. Yet she looks at me fearless.

I observe as she takes her hands out of the pockets of her white coat, and with steady hands reaches for my weapon; and I keep staring at her hands as they disarm me slowly, and meticulously. First my rifle, then my gun; my zat, and my sidearm follow. Those same hands give the weapons to the nearest SF, who is looking astonished to the scene playing in front of him. Finally, her hands reach for my vest.

She’s so close to me, and I can feel her fingers on my shoulders while she slides the vest off… I keep looking at her hands. I’m mesmerized with them. She touches me without a trace of fear, and I still don’t know why she’s doing this, nor why I’m allowing her to do so.

She’s still holding my vest half way out when she locks her eyes with mine again, and says, “You won’t see them shake.”

Finally, I understand, she’s trying to prove to me with actions, not empty words, that she’s not afraid of me. She can see my real nature; she sees the darkness in me; she knows how dangerous I really am; but she’s not afraid of me. She knows who I am. She does not fear me.

My vest goes off, and it’s also passed to the stunned SF. She tilts her head to the side, and studies me. I haven’t moved yet, I haven’t said a word, so she’s trying to decipher why. She seems to reach a conclusion, an answer, or a decision, because her head goes back to its normal position, she nods, turns around, and starts walking down the ramp.

She takes no more than five steps, and she stops.

“You’re first for the check-up. You promised Cassie that you’ll help her with her English homework.”

Her words sink in me, but so does the peacefulness in her voice, and I follow her letting a small smile appear on my face. She’s what I need, and she knows it. The sweetness in her voice and her smile tells me that she knows that I’ve received the message loud and clear. My smile grows, my step becomes determinate, and I follow her to the infirmary filled with hope on a new, happier life.

* * *

 

Teal’c and Hammond had been attracted to the control room by the commotion that the estrange scene had created, and observed the entire scene.

“What did just happen, Teal’c?” the General asked, a little astounded himself.

“I believe that O’Neill had finally found a worthy mate, GeneralHammond,” the alien said in his ever solemn voice.

“That’s what I thought. Make sure that he knows it too, okay Teal’c?”

“He does.”

They both watch the colonel follow Janet out of the gate room, with a soft, small smile on his face. Hammond nods. The Jaffa is right, Jack knows, and the General leaves the control room knowing that Jack would be happy.


	2. Confessions

**Chapter 2:** Confessions

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 5 - “Divide and Conquer”

 

* * *

 

First we had to deal with the Tok’ra again to sign a treaty that I’m sure is going to come back to bite us in the ass. Then Major Graham tries to kill the Tok’ra High Council, and then he is blown up to pieces.

That’s when the Tok’ra decided to inform us that the Goa’uld have a new technology to program orders in someone’s brain, making them something akin to a zombie, and that they have a Zatarc - that’s how they call the zombies - detector. These people are like time bombs programmed to kill someone, they don’t know it.

Everything pointed to the fact that the Goa’uld were trying to stop the treaty, so the most probable targets were the High Council and the President. I would have thought that kind of information was important for the security of the event, but the Tok’ra didn’t seem to agree…

Apparently someone decided that my day wasn’t bad enough, because not only Anise and Freya were the ones in charge of testing everyone, but when the SGC personnel were tested three more Zatarcs were found: Lt. Astor, Carter and I. Lt. Astor was the first one discovered, and she paid for it with her life. Carter and I were confined until they discovered how to solve the problem.

You would think that it was enough, and surely my luck changed after that. Well, no, it did not. In fact, Snakehead Barbie came to my room wanting to seduce me. She just came in, and kissed me! It turned uncomfortable really fast. I rejected her, and she started asking why: if it was because she’s a Tok’ra, if I was attached, if humans are sexually repressed…

I told her that I was attached but that wasn’t the point. She should be investigating the Zatarc shit not trying to seduce me! I think that she got it, but she still wanted to know who my mate was… mate? What kind of way of describing Jan is that? Anyway, I finally got her to leave me the hell alone, and go to do some work to save Carter’s and my asses.

Problem was that she discovered that just confining us wouldn’t work. Once it became evident that we wouldn’t be able to conclude our programmed mission, we would become self destructive. The only option was to try the same procedure that killed Lt. Aston on one of us, and hope that it worked. They also gave us the option of sedating us until they could find a cure, but that wasn’t really an option. I refuse to spend my whole life sleeping. I agreed to do the procedure: if it worked I’ll go on with my life, if it didn’t… my brain may help Carter.

I told Teal’c that I needed to see Janet before going through with it, though. I don’t think anyone else, aside from the Jaffa and Hammond, knew about Janet and I. Of course Cassie knew, but we only told her and Hammond, not even Daniel or Sam. I didn’t tell T either. He just came to me one day, and told me that he approved of my choice of mate (that word again, must be an alien thing), and wished me happiness. We have only been dating a few months, and we have kept it to ourselves because we needed time to sort through some things without dealing with rumors.

As soon as the door was closed leaving us alone in my room, she was in my arms. We didn’t have much time, so I held her tight, kissed her, and promised to do my best to beat this shit. I could feel how scared she was, and how much pain she was going through. Yet she was letting me do this, she wasn’t trying to convince me to get strapped to a bed and drugged, and I felt proud of her strength. _God, I love her!_ I decided that if I survived this I was going to tell her.

Reluctantly, I broke our embrace, and allowed the SF to escort me to the isolation room for the procedure.

I was already strapped to the chair when Janet came into the room ordering them to stop. Carter was behind her saying something about us not being Zatarcs. She said  the machine was reading our feelings, and because we weren’t talking about them it thought we were Zatarcs. I didn’t understand it, but I trusted her so I agreed to be tested again.

Again Anise asked me why I didn’t left Carter, and saved myself. Again I answered that I couldn’t leave one of my men behind to die alone, or worse be captured without our knowledge.

“Why?” the Tok’ra asked again. She was starting to be repetitive, in my opinion.

“Because I care, and because I’ve been there… and it’s a shitty place to be!” I repeated myself.

_This is going nowhere fast… Carter said that there was something that we didn’t or couldn’t admit to, but what?_

“What were you feeling?”

“Like… someone that it’s about to die.”

I knew that the light was still red. I was missing something. I looked up, and I saw Janet in the observation room. She was frozen on the spot, with her eyes fixed on me. Those beautiful brown eyes were full of fear, hope, and love. And it hit me like a ton of bricks.

“I was thinking about my life here, about what I would leave behind. I was thinking about Janet and Cassie. I wanted Janet’s face to be the last thing I saw.”

_God, could it have been more humiliating?! There really was no other way to expose my feelings in a more public forum!_

But the light turned blue, and Anise declared I wasn’t a Zatarc. They freed me from the chair, and retested, and cleared Carter. She admitted to have feelings for me, but I didn’t understand it. She’s afraid of me; sometimes she’s disgusted with my decisions: she had made perfectly clear that she didn’t like what I did with Alar… how can she love me then? For me the answer is clear: she can’t.

Now, she admitted to having feelings for me, but she told me that she could leave it in that room, and ignore them, that nothing had to change. I told her that if she could be professional about it, then I had no problem with keeping it to myself and keeping her in SG-1.

If I hadn’t let her go after Alar, if I had loved her, I would have accepted it all the same, and waited for her to let those feelings out of the room. But how long would I have waited? Would she have wanted a relationship with me ever? How could she have if she fears me? Even if the answer was yes, after who knows how long waiting, would have it worked?

I decided to leave that road. I don’t like dwelling on ‘what’s if’s. The reality is that I let her go, and fell for Janet.

Finally, we noticed that Martouf hadn’t been tested, and he was the Zatarc. Sadly, we couldn’t save him, but no one else died, and the treaty was signed. It was a small victory after a really bad day, and Carter felt really horrible having to kill Martouf to save us. I knew she will need time to come to terms with it, and even once she does, she’ll never get over it. I know it probably better than anyone in this base.

Once the summit was over, I was allowed to go home. I went to the locker room to have a shower before leaving, and Daniel cornered me there wanting to know more about my relationship with Janet, and why I didn’t tell him. I was exhausted, and promised to talk to him about it the next day over a beer, if he let me go then. In a weird moment of clarity, Daniel understood that he wasn’t going to get anything out of me at that moment, and he accepted my offer. The guy loves gossip almost as much as his rocks, so he’ll push to get as much information as possible out of me. Tomorrow. Today I can go home.

Arriving to Janet’s I found a sleeping house: the lights were off, the windows and the door locked, the alarm on… I let myself in, and for the first time considered that I’ve been doing that for more than two months already, and that I haven’t been in my house in the last two weeks. We’ve gotten used to each other, and to our relationship to a point that we haven’t noticed the changes. Or at least I haven’t noticed them.

I saw a dime light in the living room, and I walked to the small lamp to switch it off. I took off my leather jacket, and let it fall on the couch, while I was at it. That’s when I saw a small piece of paper beside the lamp, a note in Janet’s almost unreadable doctor handwriting that said: “ _I love you too. Get the Champagne from the fridge. I’ll wait up for you. Janet._ ”

I did as I was told, picked the cool bottle, and went up the house to her room. I opened the door, and found Janet already in bed waiting for me. And… let’s just say that my exhaustion left faster than you can say, ‘ _I’m gonna be late for my lunch with Danny-boy!_ ’ 

 


	3. Decisions

**Chapter 3:** Decisions

 **Season/episode:** season 4 - episode 9 - “Scorched Earth”

* * *

 

This was supposed to be one relaxed mission. We gated to P5S-381 to celebrate with the Enkarans; they now had a planet they could call home. We found them months ago slaved by the Goa’uld, going blind and dying because their physiological needs are very specific. We freed them, invested months in finding a suitable planet, and then we moved them here. Now they were celebrating; their villages were ready, and we were invited.

It was a party, and a diplomatic event, so it was expected to be safe and easy. I even convinced Hammond to allow Janet to come with me. She is not allowed to go on missions under my command unless she is the only field doctor available. That’s pretty much the only restriction that Hammond gave us when we started our relationship. Due to her status as CMO she can even outrank me in certain circumstances, and considering that we’ve played the power game well in the past, the General thought that the only problems our relationship posed for the frat regs were Janet’s evaluations - which he could do - and missions. Thus he forbade Janet from going with SG1 through the gate unless it was unavoidable. But in this occasion, I convinced him that it was a diplomatic event, and it may look diplomatic if I were to travel with her as my mate like Teal’c is so fond of calling it. Well, convinced may be a strong word. He knew that it was an excuse; I knew that it was an excuse, but he accepted the excuse and allowed it as an exception.

It was great to see these people settle down in their new land, and grow as a village, as a society; and I have to admit that I felt proud of the job the SGC had done for the Enkarans. We enjoyed the party, even if I was thoroughly embarrassed by Hedrazar when she announced that her grandkid will be named after me. Janet’s proud smile almost made up for the embarrassment though.

Sadly, the party ended abruptly, when an Enkaran from another village came running to us for help. In that moment, the mission went from easy and safe to dangerous and disastrous.

A ship, a very big ship, was flying directly to Hedrazar’s village and it was destroying everything in its path. We took samples and returned to the SGC to try to discover what was happening. We didn’t like what we found out. The ship was transforming the environment of the planet to support sulpher based life, which basically meant that it was going to kill everyone on the planet.

The Enkarans refused to leave the planet, and even if they did, we could never evacuate them all. And after that, with their needs we could never find another suitable planet in time, we would be piling bodies long before then. Thousands of Enkarans were going to die if we couldn’t stop that ship.

We used a transmitter hoping to be able to communicate with whoever was in the ship, and we were transported inside. There we found a bunch of tissue samples, that the three scientists thought were to recreate an alien environment from scratch. Yeah, you read right, I said three. Hammond allowed us to take Janet in case the Enkarans needed medical care. Her excuse, not mine, I promise.

There was also a robot, Lotan, he called himself. He had been made by the ship to communicate with us, or so he said. However, he acted more like a messenger or a PR guy than a diplomatic sent, or built, to negotiate with us. He made it clear that the ship would not be stopped because the transformation of the planet could not be stopped or the Gadmere’s civilization would die.

The Gadmere were an advanced civilization wiped out by a war against a more powerful enemy. Before dying, they created this ship to be their legacy: they placed all their knowledge in it, and they provided the ship with the means to rebuild their planet and their civilization in a new place.

The Enkarans refused to leave the planet, Lotan refused to stop the ship, and Hammond refused to give me the man power and weapons needed to destroy the ship. I was out of options in a no win situation, and I had to choose between a ginormous library with some frozen alien samples of an already dead race, or thousands of living Enkarans, who were our responsibility from the moment we promised to help them months ago.

I made the choice of helping them, and ordered Carter to make a bomb with the naquadah reactor we had provided Hedrazar’s village as an energy source.

Carter was again not pleased with my decisions but she obeyed her orders. Daniel was another matter entirely, though. He was angry and tried to talk with Lotan again. He was unsuccessful, yet with minutes until the detonation of the bomb, he went with Lotan to the ship. While he got Lotan to stop the ship temporarily, he still had no way of saving the Enkarans or plan of action, and he revealed our plan to Lotan and stopped the explosion. He ended finding an alternative, but that was after blowing up our only hope to save these people.

Lotan agreed to transport all the Enkarans to their homeworld, which the ship had found while scanning hundreds of planets looking for a suitable one for the transformation process. I got Lotan to transport the stargate too, so that we could reestablish our relationship with the Enkarans, and he did promised that 36 hours after leaving P5S-381 to the Enkaran homeworld our friends would be there and the stargate would be ready for our use.

We needed three days to bring everyone back to Hedrazar’s village, even with the young men horse riding to the other villages to explain the situation, and using some jeeps that the SGC sent to help with the evacuation. Finally, in the morning of the fourth day, almost all the Enkarans were in the Gadmere ship ready to go back to their original world.

Only Hedrazar, her son, Eliam, and his wife, Nikka remained. I was talking to them, saying my goodbyes; I was promising to gate to their new world as soon as the stargate was working, when Janet approached us.

“Permission to speak and act freely and completely off the record, sir,” she said completely straight faced.

I was pretty confused, but I nodded. “Yeah, what do you want, Janet?” I asked using her name to separate Jack from the colonel, in the same way she was trying to do with the doctor and Janet.

She nodded somewhat somberly, took a deep breath, and then, standing on her tiptoes kissed me softly but pouring her love into the kiss. I responded to it. How could I not? But after a few seconds, she broke the contact, and talked again. “I expect you back home in 36 hours or next time you put a foot in my infirmary I’ll use the biggest needle ever.”

I could not stop the smile from appearing on my face. She understood that I needed to go with them; I needed to make sure that they were really safe before returning home. I kissed her once more trying to tell her that I would do my very best to do as she ordered, and I watched her walk away and join the rest of SG1.

* * *

 

“It’s time to leave,” Janet told the other three members of the team standing by the gate.

“What about the Colonel?” Carter asked.

“O’Neill will return to Earth once he is convinced of the safety of the Enkarans,” Teal’c explained and Janet nodded confirming the Jaffa’s assumption.

The team dialed the gate and returned home to debrief the General of the last developments of the mission.

* * *

 

When I returned home two days later, we finally had a full debriefing with the General and the entire team, Janet included. The General congratulated us for our good job, and complimented Janet and me for our ability to stay professional. He even conceded us permission to travel together to diplomatic or medical missions as long as we keep being professionals. He advised, though, one screw up, and the concession will be rescinded.

After the debriefing, I wanted to talk with Daniel in my office. Okay, I wanted to yell at him, I admit it. I directed him there, let him in, and closed the door behind us.

“Look, Jack, I know what you’re going to say… and you’re right, I screwed up,” he said. Just out of the blue, he admitted to be wrong, to screwing up, and without any yelling. I must say that I was astonished.

“Janet yelled at me already when we got back,” he admitted sheepishly, and then proceeded to explain to me that particular conversation.

_“Daniel, come here,” Janet ordered practically pushing him into her office, and closing the door behind them. “You disobeyed your CO, civilian or not, it doesn’t matter; good or bad intentions doesn’t matter either,” she said firmly and raising her hand to keep him quiet until she was finished. “With still no way of saving the Enkarans you blew up our plan, you blew up their only hope. You bet thousands of lives on convincing a robot of changing his plans, when he had given no indication of even caring about it. You were arrogantly convinced that you could change his mind, and in your arrogance you risked thousands of lives to save an enormous library and a bunch of tissue samples. You got lucky, that’s the only reason it went down so well. You were lucky.”_

_You’re angry at Jack, but believe me he’s more angry at you. And he’s right. He’s the CO of your team; his job is to see the full picture, not only a part of it, and to make tough decisions like this one. You cannot go disobeying him when you please because one day someone is going to die because of it. This time you were lucky, maybe next time you won’t.”_

“So Janet yelled at you, eh? I knew she was ready for command, she’s the CMO for a reason, but I’d never seen her give someone a dressing down.” I smiled at him to tell him that he was forgiven. He made a mistake because he got carried away wanting to save everyone, he had good intentions, after all.

“You know, Jack, you two are weird… you’re proud of her because she can yell at me as good as you could, and she seemed oddly pleased with you going with Hedrazar’s people…”

I shrugged. I didn’t expect him to understand. He surprised me, though, when we were already leaving my office. “But I think I get it… you’re proud of her not only as a doctor but as an airman too; and she’s proud of the honorable man you are.” I smiled. What else was there to say?

We left the office, and started walking through the corridors of the base to the locker rooms. “O’Malley’s tonight, say 1900 for team night?” I suggested, and Daniel nodded acknowledging the peace offering for what it was.

We were going to be alright. The team was going to be okay; tough decisions were made and will probably be made again, but we will get through them, we will be alright.

 


	4. Missing

**Chapter 4:** Missing

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 10 - “Beneath the Surface”

* * *

 

During our time on P3R-118 O’Neill despaired. He spent his time as Jonah looking uselessly for his family in the passages of the underground facility where we were captives. His entire free time was spent wandering through those tunnels looking for them desperately.

Once he remembered the truth: who we really were, and the nature of our duty, he also remembered that they weren’t in the tunnels but safe at home. Then he just wanted to return by their side.

Working together SG1 prevailed; we won our freedom and that of the workers. We then returned to the stargate, and dialed the alpha site taking all the workers with us. After reporting our situation to the alpha site commander, he informed GeneralHammond in the SGC, and we were allowed to return to Earth. The General, however, sent a medical team to attend to the workers just before our departure.

* * *

 

SG1 was waiting by the gate for the medical team to come through. We had been instructed to greet them, debrief them, and help them a little with the refugees before leaving.

I couldn’t wait for the process to end. After three weeks underground looking for my family, I couldn’t wait to see them. I wanted to hug Cassie. I wanted to watch a movie with my two favorite women curled against me in the couch. I wanted to kiss Janet. Hell! I wanted to make love to her. I wanted to go home.

Then the stargate kawhooshed and the medical team crossed the event horizon lead by Janet. I couldn’t help myself; I smiled lovingly at her, walked to meet her, and hugged her tightly. I buried my face in the crook of her neck breathing her scent, while flushing her body to mine. For a second, I feared that she would become angry for breaking our agreement to be professional at work, especially because I was doing it in front of her team, her subordinates, not to mention the whole Alpha Base personnel. But it seemed that she decided to make an exception because she just returned the hug. Her fingers dug into my back almost desperately, and I knew that she had been just as desperate to find me as I had been to find them. I could feel her desperation as clearly as I could feel mine.

I was barely aware of the rest of the medical team walking past us to where Colonel Riley, the commander of the base, was waiting for them. All the same, my team dialing home hardly registered either.

I kissed her neck, breathed her scent once more, and reluctantly, very reluctantly, broke the hug. I held onto her hands, though, unable to let her go just yet. Janet took a deep breath before talking; she ordered me back home to Cassie, and promised to come back home ASAP. Then with a soft peck on my lips, and one last squeeze, she let go of my hands, and walked past me to join her team. The sooner she finished her job, the sooner she’ll be back home with me, so I didn’t argue. I just smiled at her, and waved goodbye with my right hand while the wormhole was established.

We crossed the gate, and we were greeted by the General like he always did. He allowed us to leave the base after the check-ups postponing the debriefing for the next day when probably the medical team would have something to report, and we’d had sometime for ourselves. Hammond told me he had called Cassie to let her know that I was on my way home, and I almost ran out of the base to meet her at home.

Cassie and I spent the evening together, making up for the lost time, catching up to the Earth-side events during my absence, eating pizza, and watching a movie. At least, that’s what we did once I was thoroughly hugged by the girl, and she had cried out all her fear. I swear she bruised some ribs. Not that I mind, I hugged her just as tightly. Later, sometime into the movie, she fell asleep in my arms, and I carried her to her bed.

Without thinking it twice, I went to sleep in the master room. I was already in bed, half asleep, when I noticed that it had been a while since I’ve thought of this room and this bed as Janet’s, since I think of them as _our_ room, and _our_ bed. _Maybe is time for us to move in together?_

* * *

 

The next day, after driving Cassie to high school, I went back to the base for the debriefing, hoping that Janet was already back and we could both get a few days off. I honestly needed some private time with her after three weeks of missing her.

_Get your mind out of the gutter! I can hear what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong… well, not entirely, but that’s not the only thing in my mind. Of course, I do intend to make love with her. I’m not a monk! But sex is not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about intimacy, just being with her, talking with her, having lunch, or even going out… It’s been a while since we had time to go dancing, and Janet loves dancing. Yes, I think I’ll take her dancing tonight. I just need to get Hammond to give us some time off._

At any rate, I was right: Janet had already returned from the Alpha Site having left her team to finish the job, and was ready for the debriefing. The debriefing wasn’t as long as I had feared, and I was happy to know that the General was going to put the scientist to work on finding a nice planet for the workers, a new place they could call home.

By midday Janet and I were home with a week off to enjoy feeling relived to be together again. As soon as we crossed the front door, Janet kicked the door close, grabbed me by the lapels of my jacket, forcing me to bend down to her level, and kissed me.

The kiss was hard, passionate, and full of love, fear, and desperation. I responded to it purring into her mouth as much emotion as she was giving. I hugged her tightly, flushing her body to mine, and… let’s just say that we didn’t make it to the bedroom…

 


	5. Oxygen

**Chapter 5:** Oxygen

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 12 - “Tangent”

* * *

 

I knew loving Jack was going to be one scary thing to do from the start, but I never expected lack of oxygen to be responsible for the 24 longest hours of my life.

The X-301 test failed when a doohickey implanted in it by Apophis took over the plane and propelled Jack and Teal’c through space. Major Davis and Sam did their best to help them turn the aircraft around, but Jack’s idea of using their missiles to maneuver it failed, and damaged the 301.

With both power and life support short, we were quickly running out of time.

Daniel called our allies, but the only help he found was from the Tok’ra, and it wasn’t very helpful, to tell the truth. Anise explained they had an operative close to save them, but in a very dangerous position. They refused to tell us where he was, but with the little information Anise provided, and Sam’s knowledge of their ships, we came up with the most probable planet to find the Tok’ra operative.

Daniel and Sam were getting ready to go. I went looking for the General, hoping I could convince him to allow me to join the mission.

“General, Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c may need immediate medical attention. A doctor should join the rest of SG1,” I told him in the most professional voice I could muster.

He sized me for a few seconds. I knew he knew I was bullshiting my way into this mission. Yet he nodded.

“Okay, doctor, you have a go… but don’t do anything stupid.”

* * *

 

Once on the planet we were transported onto a Tok’ra scout only to find Jacob, who was more than a little surprised to see us and less than happy about the situation, but more than willing to help.

We forced the ship to its limits… over its limits, I’d say, considering we broke it midway there. I spent the entire time praying they had found a way to stay alive until we could get there.

Against all odds, we got there in time.

Then it was a matter of getting them out of there and into the ship. Sam and I put our heads together and came up with a plan. They would have to blow the canopy of the glider and eject; we would catch them with the rings. The only problem with our plan was we found them unconscious, or more accurately Jack was unconscious due to anoxia, and Teal’c was in kel-no-reem.

Sam called them a few times trying to wake them up. It didn’t work. Jacob gave them a little nudge with the ship, and what we got was an unfocused Jack.

“Jack!” I called for him, in _my-focus-on-what-I’m-saying_ voice, trying my best to get him to listen to what he had to do.

“Janet?” I could hear confusion and disbelief in his voice. He thought I was a hallucination.

I don’t think I have ever been that afraid in my life.

Fortunately, he woke Teal’c up, and after a few seconds Jack was also capable of concentrating enough to do what we told him.

I would never forget the image of Jack and Teal’c floating in space.

Nor the relief I felt minutes later, when they were finally safe and warm inside the ship…

* * *

 

I had been feeling the effects from the lack of oxygen for some time when I made my last call home. I estimated we only had oxygen for three more hours. We were going to die in the damn glider. I sent a short message with the last report, and a goodbye for Janet and Cassie. I trusted the General to pass it by, and went back to sleep.

It was hard to sleep, but I must have fallen unconscious soon after, because the next thing I knew a scout ship was nudging us. Daniel, Carter, Jacob, and Janet were in the ship. The moment I saw Janet I knew I was hallucinating… or so I thought.

Turns out I wasn’t, and after a few confusing minutes we were inside the ship. Daniel and Janet came running towards us to see if we were still alive.

I was still on the floor, and she was hovering over me checking my pulse, my pupils with her flashlight, and whatnot… she was in full doc mode.

I grabbed her hand, stopping her actions, and whispered firmly, “I’m okay.”

I saw the moment she couldn’t hold onto her professional persona anymore, and quite honestly neither could I. I pulled on her hand, bringing her down to the floor with me. She didn’t resist. I enveloped her with my arms pressing her warm body to mine, and kissed her.

I heard the confusion in Jacob’s voice while he asked the others what the hell was happening, but I really didn’t care at all. I just kept kissing Janet as if she was the oxygen I had been missing in the glider.

With the way she was kissing me, it’s safe to say the feeling was mutual.


	6. Air

**Chapter 6:** Air

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 12 - “Tangent”

Continuation of “Oxygen” (chapter 5)

* * *

 

(Daniel’s POV)

I knew that Jack and Janet had been dating for quite a while already, and I knew they were in love. Their desperate reunion at the Alpha Site following our stay at P3R-118 gave them away, and I saw how scared Janet was under her doctor-slash-airman persona during this mission. Yet, I would have never expected them to kiss inside the ship or in front of us in such a passionate manner.

Janet’s body was almost on top of Jack’s; she was holding onto his flight suit so hard her hands were almost white, and he was holding her to his body with a hand on the small of her back and the other buried in her hair. _When did Jack undo her bun?_

I smiled at the sight. They were really in love and happy, or neither of them would be letting their feelings show like this.

“20 bucks he proposes before April.” Teal’c looked at me with a raised eyebrow silently telling me that my attitude wasn’t respectful. He did take the bet, though.

“Your bet is not accurate enough, DanielJackson. You must choose a month. I will place my bet on January.”

“March,” I answered my Jaffa friend.

“Would one of you mind stopping these bets and tell me what the hell is happening?” Jacob asked more than a little confused.

* * *

 

(Jacob’s POV)

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

As soon as Jack and Teal’c were in my ship, Doctor Fraiser was all over Jack and seconds later they were kissing as if there was no tomorrow.

I’ve never seen Jack break protocol so blatantly. He does disobey orders but only when it’s the right thing to do because he does believe and follows Air Force regulations, contrary to popular belief. He is an airman through and through.

I never imagined him to be attracted to the petite doctor either, or that she could be interested in him. I’ll admit when I first met him, I thought that he was interested in Sam.  

A big part of me was glad about this development, even if I was confused as hell. It was evident that Jack and the doctor were quite happy with each other, which was a good thing by itself.

It also meant that Sam’s career was safe; I didn’t have to worry about her risking it or losing it to be with Jack. I respect Jack; I even like him, but I’ve always worried about them getting together and how it would affect Sammie.

Not even a year ago I was afraid Jack’s feelings for Sam could get her killed. I feared he would screw up a mission due to those feelings and get them all killed. This had been my greatest fear even though I refused to think about it. Seeing Sam destroy her career for him couldn’t compete with it. Now I was sure that this was no longer a risk.

On the other hand, when I looked into my daughter’s eyes, I saw pain. The kind of pain someone suffers when their love is unrequited. I had to ask myself what on Earth could have happened since the last time I saw them to change their feelings. Then, I was sure that Jack was in love with Sam, but that she didn’t love him back.

I heard Selmak’s exasperated voice in my head saying I only believed that because I was lying to myself about Sam’s feelings. I would never admit to anyone, other than myself, that she was right, though.

In any case, I was very confused about what I was witnessing, and hearing Daniel and Teal’c make a bet about proposals didn’t help any, so I made clear it that I needed some Intel.

“Would one of you mind stopping these bets and tell me what the hell is happening?”

* * *

 

(Sam’s POV)

I know I lost him since his confession during the Zatarc incident but, I never wanted to acknowledge it; I hid from the truth, until now. There was no way to deny the Colonel was in love with Janet seeing the way he was kissing her.

I heard Daniel and Teal’c make a bet about when Colonel O’Neill will propose, and I saw my father’s confusion written all over his face, but I could only feel pain.

I lost him when we came back from Euronda and he killed Alar. I wasn’t sure what happened exactly, but I knew something about that mission made him decide to let me go. Somehow this event allowed Janet get under his skin and since then his feelings for our CMO grew unstoppable over time.

I’d seen evidence of that love for a while: his confession in front of the Zatarc detector, their embrace when they met at the Alpha Site after our time on P3R-118, Janet’s fear during this mission, her worried face every time we were about to gate somewhere… _Damn, I really should have known!_ When I saw how cozy they were during the celebrations on P5S-381 before we knew about the Gadmere’s ship or their kiss before he left with the Enkarans to their new world. Surely the fact that they were willing to acknowledge their relationship by announcing it to the galaxy at the Enkarans’ celebration should have told me how much in love they were. Yet I hadn’t wanted to accept it until now.

I had to admit that it was painful to watch him kiss Janet with so much love and passion.

I decided then that I had to let him go and move on. I never wanted these feelings I have for him because they complicate our work way too much, and being unable to have a relationship with him only brought me pain. Still really letting go of my feelings for the Colonel wasn’t easy and it hurt.

I felt my father staring at me but I refused to meet his eyes. I couldn’t bear it at the time. I heard him ask for an explanation, and I dragged my mind out of those sad thoughts and to the present.

“Would one of you mind stopping these bets and tell me what the hell is happening?”  my father asked completely stunned by the sight in front of him.

* * *

 

(Jacob’s POV)

“Jacob, do you really need an explanation?” Jack suddenly asked in a teasing voice. He had stopped kissing Janet, and was now helping her off his body. The couple stood up but Jack kept her close to his body throwing his right arm around her shoulders. “I would have thought you knew about the bees and the birds.”

“Funny, Jack.”

“O’Neill and DoctorFraiser are mates,” Teal’c said helpfully. He really loves to state the obvious.

I rolled my eyes seeing Jack smirk. “No shit.”

“They started dating a few months ago, Jacob,” Daniel explained. That wasn’t much information either, but at least seemed to cover the situation without breaking Jack’s confidence or invading the privacy of the couple.

I guess I was still trying to process the information and it showed on my face because Teal’c decided to help again. “Upon our return from Euronda, DoctorFraiser proved to be a worthy mate for O’Neill.”

 _Okay, that’s a weird comment._ Feeling more lost than before, I turned to glare at Jack. “Jack, can you please translate that?”

“Long story short, Jacob: Jan and I started dating a few months ago after our mission to Euronda… you know, that one with the underground-Nazis.”

I observed the petite but strong doctor while Jack spoke with feigned disinterest. She didn’t flinch, just squeezed his hand discretely in a supporting gesture; the movement was almost unnoticeable.

It hit me like a bulldozer.

I knew Sam would have a hard time accepting that her CO executed a man; Doctor Fraiser must have understood the need for such an action. My daughter is a scientist first and a soldier second, and I have always feared her too naïve for Jack’s dark nature. This was one of my fears in relation to them getting together. I know this war will make a more homogeneous blend of soldier and scientist, but the blending process was only starting and there was no way Sam could be with someone like Jack. Neither could Jack be with someone who feared him or hated his dark side.

With that, I understood my daughter’s pained look. There was no going back, Jack had found someone which whom he could share his darker side, past, actions and maybe even fears.

I congratulated them with a smile, and placed my bet on February.

“How do you know I’m even going to propose? Maybe I won’t,” Jack argued with us.  It was obvious he had listened to our conversation even while kissing the doctor. He looked embarrassed about the situation but unwilling to admit it. The doctor slapped him playfully on the chest, and he answered smiling softly at her.

 _Who was he trying to kid?_ The proposal was a matter of time, and it looked like the doctor was favorable to the idea.

“We have only just decided to move in together, you know, people? Cassie is still deciding which color she wants her new room!” He kept arguing just for the sake of it.

“Not true. She wants blue ice for the walls and blueberry for the curtains and the bed cover,” Janet corrected him.

You should have seen Jack’s face. I could see his frustration over the move growing exponentially in a second. I could hear him thinking: “this is why I promised myself to never move again.” I knew because that was what I swore over and over again every time we moved due to my career. It was why my wife took over the decoration of our new house.

“Look, Janet, it’s okay for you to take over my closet and bathroom, it’s okay for Cassie to choose how to decorate her room, even if she wants to use fruits instead of colors… but don’t you even think that I’m letting you paint my living room or my bedroom with any kind of weird paint with anything edible for name! We are not painting the living room with that weird trout color!”

“It’s salmon,” she corrected him trying to hold in her laugher.

“They’ve taken over my house, Jacob, I swear,” the colonel exclaimed. It was clear that he wasn’t as bothered as he wanted to make it look. He seemed happy with the move, even excited to build their home out of his house. But there are limits; things he just doesn’t like and doesn’t want in their house.

Thankfully, Janet took pity at his desperation, and after laughing at him for a few seconds, promised him to not paint anything in the house in any color he didn’t approve of. I swear, he sighed in relief.

I had to admit they were a weird couple, but they were perfect for each other. Even when they were bickering about the move their eyes lit up with excitement. They were one happy couple.

I just prayed Sam could find something like that someday.


	7. Mother Hen

**Chapter 7:** Mother Hen

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 14 - “The Curse”

* * *

 

Osiris escaped with Sarah Gardner’s body and left a big mess to clean up.

Dr. Rayner, Daniel’s friend or colleague or whatever – they didn’t seem to be all that friendly in my opinion – was extremely confused by the recent events. Daniel trusted him, though. Therefore, the decision was made to give him clearance and a job in the labs in the SGC. A new archeologist for the eggheads department…

Carter was fine, pissed off because Osiris escaped but unharmed. On the other hand, Daniel was angry because he hadn’t realized Osiris was inside his ex, but he was also pretty depressed. I didn’t blame him in the slightest; he had lost way too much to the Goa’uld. It was going to take him a while to get on his feet again but helping Rayner adapt to the SGC seemed to be helping.

However, what really left me shaking was the scene I found when I returned to the SGC from my visit to the Alpha Site. Dr. Warner was wrapping a tight bandage around Janet’s torso because Osiris had thrown her against a wall, breaking two of her ribs and bruising another three.

Janet hadn’t been injured since we started dating. In fact the last time she was injured was a year ago and it had only been a sprained ankle. I wasn’t used to be on this side of things, and it made me appreciate the fear and pain the family of military personnel go through in a whole new level. I’d always known how hard it was for Sara, and now Janet, to wait for me but I had never felt it. I have to say that I admire their strength and courage; I admire them.

I was going to have to get used to it, though. I was now one more of those husbands, boyfriends, or significant other waiting at home for their loved one to return unharmed from the war.

I have to admit that the process of getting used to it wasn’t easy on any of us. Janet was placed on medical leave so I took a few days off to help her until she could get around the house on her own. I drove her crazy trying to care for her every need, and constantly asking if she was in pain.

After two days, she decided that we needed to do something useful before she hit me over the head with something. She was holding a frying pan so I nodded dutifully and left the kitchen just in case.

We were still moving her things to my house, no; _our_ house so we thought we could entertain ourselves sorting boxes. It worked for about a day. We work well together and most of the job had already been done, so we really didn’t have much work to do. That, and my insistence on doing most of the lifting, carrying, and anything in general only got me heated glares, sarcastic comments, and another threat to hit me with something if I kept being so helpful.

In only a week, I was ready to kill her for being the horrible patient she always accuses me of being and she was ready to kill me for being the annoyingly helpful Napoleonic power monger I accuse her of being.

It was then, when I heard her yell that I was a pain-in-the-ass, Napoleonic nurse that I suddenly realized how ironic the situation was. I burst out laughing. I guess she saw the humor in the situation too because she couldn’t hold her laugh in either, and soon we were both sitting on the floor laughing like mad people.

We made a deal for this kind of situation. We promised to help the other but also to back off if the injured party asked. However, the injured party must follow doctor’s orders and the other was allowed to push to get that done. Also none of us were allowed to get too angry about it, and take it out on the other… at least, not much.

Deal made and a handshake to seal it, we packed our bags for a short trip to the cabin. A week alone in the wild would make for a romantic and hopefully relaxing vacation.

Plus, there aren’t too many blunt objects she could use to hit me there, and the ones that are aren’t breakable…


	8. Letters and Care Packages

**Chapter 8:** Letters and care packages

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 18 - “The Light”

* * *

 

_Dear Janet,_

_It’s been a long time since I last wrote a letter like this and I have absolutely no idea what to write. Not that I had a better idea then… I know you can see me shrugging from there, and that you’re probably rolling your eyes at me. Don’t! Please…_

_Sara used to save all my letters in a box in her side of the closet; I’m not sure if you would like it but I decided to give it a try. I’m really bad at this, so don’t laugh at me if this letter is pathetic._

_Anyway, we’ve been here three days and I’m already bored out of my mind!_

_Daniel is working on translating the writings of the walls… In fact, it’s pretty much the only thing he does all day long. Carter is playing with the light thingy, trying to figure out if we can use the power source for something or other. When she’s not playing with the damn light machine, then she’s playing with Daniel and the writings or her laptop. I’m sure it’s an inseparable part of her body… I’m not sure if even you could remove it surgically from her hands! T spends most of his time training or helping Daniel with his translation. Loran likes to help Daniel for a few hours every day, but he also plays ball with T and I. I had to teach both of them how to play catch! It was fun, though._

_As for me, I’m up to date with the paperwork… yeah, no matter how surprising you find it; I went over everything the General sent me. Don’t tell him, please. I’m bored but not THAT bored! Aside from the damn paperwork, I’m sparring with T, swimming and running along the beach… Have I ever told you that I love to run on the beach? Well, I do._

_I’m out of things worth writing down here, so I’ll close it now._

_How are you and Cassie? Everything ok home? Write me back, please, I want to hear from my two favorite girls._

_Love,_

_Jack_

* * *

 

_Dear Janet and Cassie,_

_Things are still the same here. I’m still bored – no, not enough to want more paperwork to work on… yet – and I’m still doing basically the same thing than yesterday._

_How are things at home?_

_I love you and I miss you both._

_Love,_

_Jack_

* * *

 

_Dear Janet and Cassie,_

_I love you. I miss you. I hope you are both fine._

_Love,_

_Jack_

* * *

 

We have been trapped on P4X-347 for over two weeks and we still have at least another week to go. We contacted the SGC every 48 hours through the MALP; and they sent us supplies and some form of entertainment - which unfortunately for Hammond, meant sending me paperwork! – once a week. Teal’c, the less affected member of SG1, travelled back and forth to escort our shipments. He took our list of needs to the General, my letters to Janet, supervised the preparation of our supplies, and of course, took my paperwork to Hammond.

After a few days in the planet, and knowing I could trust my letters to T, I got into the habit of writing a letter every night before going to bed, and by the end of the first week I had written a few … most of them no longer than 20 words. Still, I sent them back home through the stargate with my Jaffa friend and our list of supplies. When the General called that night and T returned with the supplies I got a pretty awesome surprise.

The shipment included coffee for Daniel, blue jell-o for Carter, fruit for Teal’c, and cake, a big chocolate cake! Anyway that wasn’t the best of it. Daniel had a big box full of books to help with the translation, Carter had a hell of a lot of batteries for her laptop, Teal’c had enough candles to burn down the place, and I got a pretty big box from Janet and Cassie.

“What’s that Jack?” Daniel asked curious about the smile on my face.

“Care package.”

“From Janet, maybe?” _Damn Space-monkey, he was trying to tease me!_

“And Cassie,” I told him, refusing to take the bait.

“So what’s in there?” he asked again seeing as I was opening the box to take a peek.

“Uhm… a few books, a notebook, some pens, the small telescope…” I answered absentmindedly, while I inspected the contents of the box through its opening.

I felt Daniel trying to look inside the box from behind my back by craning his neck as far as possible. I glared at him trying to convey without words that the contents of my box weren’t any of his business.

“Jack, that book is in Spanish, and the other in Russian! Russian!!” Daniel exclaimed pointing to them. Obviously, my glare was for nothing.

“Yeah?”

“You know Spanish and Russian?” he accused.

“Yep.” I was having a little too much fun messing with him, I admit.

“Then why the hell did you make me translate for you constantly when we were in Russia?!”

“Entertainment.” I smirked, and he glared at me.

Then, he went back to trying to see what else was in the box. He’s way too nosy for his own good, and I don’t appreciate people invading my privacy. If he didn’t stop, I was going to have to teach him a lesson.

“The small telescope, sir? Do you have more than one?” Carter asked ignoring my banter with the archeologist. She was already inspecting the batteries and some tools the General sent for her, and she wasn’t even looking at us.

“Yes, Carter, I have two: the good one on my deck and a smaller, easily portable one. She sent the second one so I could watch the stars here.” I had to smile at how thoughtful Janet’s gesture was.

I took the box out of Daniel’s reach brusquely and glared at him.

"Jack!” he whined. I’m not sure if it was because he wanted his gossip fix, or because I ‘accidentally’ stomped on his foot.

“Yes, Daniel?” I asked looking at him with my most innocent face while picking up my box to take it to what had become my room.

“C’mon, Jack, I’ve just discovered that you speak Spanish and Russian, and those books are both in cosmology… I want to know what else you know.”

 _Damn!_ _The man is the worst gossip ever!_

“Has it occurred to you, Daniel, that maybe instead of _spying_ into my _private_ mail, you should ask me?” I admit I was irritated and I let it show in my voice, but damn it, it’s my mail!

“Okay. You’re right, Jack. I apologize.”

That stopped me; I could hear in his voice that he was sincere. I nodded to acknowledge his apology, and continued walking to my room.

“So, Jack, what other languages you know?”

I groaned. I really wanted to go and find what else was in the box, not satisfy Daniel’s curiosity. “Daniel, not now. I’m going to look at this box in private. Later we can play 20 questions!”

“DanielJackson, O’Neill misses his family and desires to enjoy his ‘care package’ in the privacy of his quarters. I suggest we respect his wishes,” Teal’c, my favorite alien ever, broke the concept in tiny little words so that my genius but clueless friend could understand it.

“Oh… of course…” He sounded embarrassed not having caught on.

* * *

 

Daniel came to my room a while later. He seemed pretty chastised because he even knocked before coming in. I looked up from Janet’s letter and gestured for him to come in with my hand.

“I’m really sorry about before, Jack,” he said a little shyly. He approached me and sat down on the floor. “I guess I didn’t realize the real value the package has for you.”

“It’s okay, Daniel. Just try to turn down your need for gossip a little. You’re Cassie’s rival for the prize of gossip queen of the state of Colorado,” I mocked him. I wanted to make clear that he was forgiven but also that he shouldn’t repeat it.

“Hey! I’m not as bad as Cassie!” he complained. “But okay, I’ll try.”

“Good.”

“It’s just… I’ve never seen you this happy, Jack, and I’m really happy for you. I think I’m a little over-excited about it…”

Daniel confession took me by surprise. While I knew that this was the reason behind his constant teasing and prodding, I had never expected him to admit to it.

“Thanks, Daniel.”

“I not only came here to apologize. It’s lunch time and we’re waiting for you,” the archeologist said after a few seconds in silence.

“Okay, let me finish reading Janet’s letter and I’ll join you.”

My insinuation that he should leave was lost to the clueless archeologist, who just stayed where he was seated on the floor. I could deal with that. However, what I couldn’t deal with was his inner teenage girl trying to pick up the photograph that Janet sent me and I had left face down beside me.

“If you turn up that photo I _will_ make you an eunuch!” I said in my most cold and threatening voice.

Daniel withdrew his hand faster than he could touch one of his artifacts or drink his coffee. Then he was rambling like a blubbering teenage boy whose mom had caught him with a Play Boy, and left the room as fast as his feet could take him.

I had to make a real effort to not laugh at him!

Once I had myself under control, I gave my full attention to Janet’s letter again.

* * *

 

_One last thing and then I’ll stop with this madness. I’m sure my three page letter is boring you to tears! We found someone willing to take Loran, and she’ll be there to welcome you when you gate back home._

_Now, I’m done._

_We love you. We miss you and we hope you can come back home soon._

_Love,_

_Janet_


	9. Reunion

**Chapter 9:** Reunion

 **Season/episode:**   season 4 - episode 18 - “The Light”

Continuation of ‘Letters and Care Packages” (Chapter 8)

* * *

 

We spent three weeks on P4X-347; time I used to explore the place and evaluate the potential uses we could make of it.

There was a good amount of naquadah to be extracted in the mountains surrounding the castle, and as soon as I discovered this, I started to work on the logistics of creating a mining colony on the planet.

With the light out of commission, the planet was relatively safe as the Goa’uld hadn’t been there in at least a century; and the palace was easily defendable with a few additions and modifications.

The area was fertile, there were some small mammals in the forests, and the water, both from the sea and the river nearby, was clean of contaminants. Thanks to Carter they would be able to use the energy source of the palace without a risk. This gave us the opportunity of creating a self-sufficient colony, or close to it, in matters of food, water, and energy.

In addition to the mining teams and the soldiers to protect them, we could also send some botanists, biologists and such to study the planet a little further. The fertile environment meant that it was possible we could find some medical herbs.

Anyway, after three long weeks trapped on P4X-347, I was more than ready to go back home.

We finally gated back home with Loran as well as bringing back everything we took from the planet: from soil samples to the dismembered lamp to be studied again by the eggheads of the base.

We sent the MALP and our things in a FRED before us. I ordered my team to cross the gate and I followed them with Loran by my side.

Our advancement down the ramp was stopped by my team frozen at the end of the ramp. I couldn’t see why so I stepped in front of Loran to protect him in case something was wrong on top of weird. I called them trying to get them back to reality, and like always, T was the first one to react. He stepped aside to let me pass by him.

It was then that I saw _her_.

In her long and beautiful letter, Janet said that they had found someone to take Loran in. Yet, I would have never expected the woman in front of me.

Janet stood by her side giving me that little knowing grin that let me know exactly how well she understood me. She knew I was in shock, but a happy kind of shock. I instantly knew that Loran’s new guardian was perfect for the job, and Loran will do a world of good for her. This was a perfect solution.

I looked at both women standing side by side, sharing the same knowing grin, both of them practically reading my thoughts. Was Janet here to welcome me, support me knowing that I was probably attached to Loran already, or to support her? Or both?

For a second I considered that having those two become friends may not be a very good thing, especially for me. But after taking another good look at them, I decided that it made me happy. It gave me a sense of peace that I hadn’t expected. I made peace with a very big part of my past.

I must have been rooted to the spot long enough to try their patience because Janet nodded at me encouraging me to move and do something.

I walked towards them, hugged Janet briefly, just a promise of a proper and private ‘hello’. I turned to look at the woman by her side. I hesitated a few seconds, but then…

I hugged _her_ tightly.

* * *

 

The still stunned team members exchanged questioning glances.

“She is here to take custody of Loran,” General Hammond explained to them.

They nodded absently, still a little baffled by the scene unfolding in front of them.

“Do you think that Janet is okay with this?” Sam asked waving at her CO still hugging the other woman.

“She is confident that O’Neill’s heart is hers,” T answered solemnly.

“That’s a lot of confidence, Teal’c,” Sam pointed out.

The Jaffa, however, merely bowed his head without further argument, and Sam suspected this was one more reason why he approved of Janet as the Colonel’s ‘mate’.

* * *

 

“Loran, come down here,” I called the boy breaking the hug.

He walked towards us, and I introduced them to each other. “Loran, this woman is going to take care of you now that you’re going to live on Earth. Her name is Sara.”


	10. Friends

**Chapter 10:** Friends

 **Season/episode:** season 4 - episode 19 - "Prodigy"

References to 'Letters and Care Packages" (Chapter 8) and 'Reunion' (chapter 9)

* * *

I walked into the mess hall intending to have lunch before leaving to M4C-862 with Teal'c to babysit some scientists.

Dr. Hamilton and his team were studying the moon and conducting numerous experiments in the facilities built there. Major Griff and SG2 were on babysitting duty right now, but my presence was required because the SGC was considering creating a permanent research facility on the moon. We need a permanent and secure research facility out of reach of the NID and their corrupted fingers. This particular moon seems like a good place on paper, but off-world bases must have my approval and are part of my responsibilities as second in command of the SGC, and I won't give the go-ahead before I've seen it with my own eyes.

However, it's a task that I'm not enthusiastic to do… not at all! Hamilton is one of the most arrogant, annoying, and idiotic eggheads of the program!

Carter and Daniel were lucky; they get to skip this boring mission. Daniel was with SG11 investigating some weird ruins and artifacts they'd found, and Carter was giving a lecture about physics at the Academy. Thank God at least T was coming with me! Without my Jaffa friend, I don't think I could go through the mission without killing Hamilton before he gets himself killed doing something stupid that I probably told him not to do. I hate the guy!

Anyway, I needed to have lunch before leaving for what was going to be a boring and annoying mission. When I got to the mess, I saw Ferretti having his lunch so, after getting my food, I joined him.

"So how are things at home, Jack? How's Loran? Is he adjusting to us crazy Tau'ri?"

"Loran is adjusting just fine. He and Cassie have become friends; they're constantly hanging around together with Cass and her friends… Of course, I taught him how to play street hockey. The three of us play as often as their vital commitments with their teenage friends allows," I explained with no small amount of sarcasm.

"And Sara? How's she handling the hormonal alien?"

"Surprisingly well. She went back to the role of mom like a pro. She's doing a great job. It's done a lot of good for her too; she's smiling a lot more."

I knew it was true. I've seen her often since Loran came to live on Earth and I've seen how happy she is being a mother again. Caring for Loran is helping her more than I can explain with words.

"Good, that's good. I'm glad you two are happy," Lou said sincerely. I could see that he was really pleased for Sara and me.

After a small pause, Ferretti spoke again, "So the alien teens are getting close, eh? Not enough to get you worried, right?" He looked a little worried about it. "Because if you think Loran needs to talk with Uncle Ferretti about being a good boy to my honorary niece…" he added somewhat menacingly.

I had to laugh hearing my friend say that. Poor Cass, she had a base full of Special Ops 'uncles' ready to threaten any possible suitor who wasn't up to the standards of these people or Janet and I. And of course, a very scary Jaffa auto-proclaimed godfather, and me. I almost felt sorry for her future boyfriends… almost.

"They're friends, kind of like cousins… they've both lost their world and they like talking about things. Sara told me the other day that Loran is dating a cute blonde called Miranda, in fact. She's one of Cass' friends."

"Good. Cass is not dating anyone, right?" Again it was 'Uncle Ferretti' talking.

"Nope, thank god! But there's a guy in her group of friends that I think is just trying to muster enough courage to ask her out… Dominic something or other."

"Well, if he ever musters enough courage, you know where to find me!"

I smirked and nodded at him. I have to admit I was pleased to know that I could get a small army to scare any boyfriend Cass gets.

"So… How's Janet, Jack? I saw Sara and Janet having coffee together the other day… exchanging tips about how to control you?" Lou teased me now that he was satisfied knowing that everything was well in the O'Neill-Fraiser household.

"Funny, Lou, very funny," I answered sarcastically.

"Oh, c'mon Jack… you got to admit that it's one very especial situation you have there."

"Tell me about it! Sara told Janet about the little gifts I would hide in the house when I was gone, and now Janet wants me to do romantic things for her. Apparently that was very romantic of me," I complained. "I was in my twenties when I did that, I would have thought that at forty-four a nice dinner and dancing in a romantic restaurant was more appropriate."

Ferretti chuckled and I glared at him trying to get him to stop. "I don't think age is a factor for Janet here," he said trying his best to control his laugher. "Maybe you should do something romantic for her when you finish your babysitting duties."

Again his mocking was obvious and I glared at him harder than before to no avail. "Okay, what would have me do, Don Juan?"

"I don't know, Jack, you're the romantic one."

"Oh, that was helpful, Lou, very helpful of you," I answered sarcastically and glaring at him trying to convey that if he didn't stop mocking me there would be consequences.

"Okay, don't shoot me, Jack," he said raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. It would have been easier to believe if he wasn't smirking unrepentantly.

"You could always propose this summer, you know take her to some beautiful place, and…"

"Oh, for crying out loud! You have a bet on that too!"

"Don't look at me like that, Jack. Even the general has money on it."

I groaned in embarrassment at the idea that everyone in the damn base, including the general were betting on my love life. I'm going to kill Daniel, T and maybe even Jacob, for starting the bet.

"Because you're going to propose, right Jack? You two are happy; you're already living together and everything…"

"Yes, I will propose when I'm ready to do so," I answered firmly. I refuse to let anyone bully us into it just because there's a bet to pay.

"Hey! Don't get me wrong, I'm just joking, not gonna bully you into it… But I know you well enough, Jack, to know that you want rings and the whole nine yards. I'm not saying it has to be tomorrow, I'm only saying that as long as it's on the cards I'm happy for you," Lou said honestly.

I nodded accepting his words at face value and muttered a 'thanks'.

"And now, Lou, I must go and babysit some scientists on M4C-yada yada…"

"Hamilton, right?" Lou asked and I gave him an affirmative nod. "My condolences… that guy is the most annoying egghead in the galaxy!"

I left the commissary more relaxed than I entered it after my friendly talk with Ferretti. He is a good friend, and his concern for me is always appreciated. He's also one of the few men in the base capable of teasing me because we had been friends for years now, and that was always quite refreshing.

Sadly my stress-free feeling was immediately lost the moment I came face to face with Hamilton. From then on, everything went south. The mission just went from annoying to dangerous, to deathly dangerous. Thankfully, Carter came up with a way of getting off that damned moon alive, and we all survived.

Hamilton was quite contrite upon our return to the SGC, grateful, respectful… he almost looked like a different man. He also seemed afraid of Janet. He turned white the moment she asked what happened to me in a voice that clearly showed her annoyance and anger at seeing that someone got injured while on a regular babysitting mission.

I found it very amusing how he ran away from the infirmary yet tried to make it look like he wasn't running. I made a conscious effort not to laugh at the guy, and I swear I saw the general trying to hide a smirk. No one really likes Hamilton except for Hamilton.


	11. Soldier

**Chapter 11:** Soldier

 **Season/episode:** season 4 - episode 20 - "Entity"

* * *

Today I killed Carter.

I know that I didn't really kill her; the entity controlling her body put her in its nest so I killed it instead of Carter. However, I did shoot my second in command with a zat twice which should have killed her. For a few hours we believed she was dead.

The entity tricked us. After studying our files, it concluded that Carter and Daniel would want to talk with it, Carter would volunteer, then it could possess her. It expected this to ensure its survival and that of its world. My instincts told me from the start that trying to talk with the entity was a very bad idea. Daniel and Carter wanted to try to talk with it though, so we gave them the opportunity.

The entity was a soldier sent by the beings of P4X-377 to destroy us in order to protect their world. By sending the MALP to its world we contaminated it, damaging the entities that inhabit the planet. One of their own came to destroy us, but when we stopped the transmission, it couldn't do it. It was forced to find a plan B.

When I finally understood it, I knew how I could get it out of Carter's body: threatening to destroy its world. I ordered the entity to leave Carter's body or I'd send dozens of MALPs to its world to cause as much destruction as I could. I expected it to return to the nest built in the MALP's room and free Carter. The entity knew that I was going to kill it; it knew the price to pay to save its world was Carter's freedom and its life. It must have been unable to do so, because it put Carter in the nest and forced me to kill it while still in her body.

At that point, I didn't know Carter was in the nest so I thought I was killing my second in command. I've sworn to protect my subordinates, to never leave them behind, and I was forced to execute my second.

The guilt, the sadness, the regret I felt was as strong as it was when I ordered Teal'c to kill Kawalsky. Like him, Carter trusted me to protect her, to have her back. The only thing I could do was kill her.

It was even worse, Kawalsky had made it plain and clear he wanted to be killed if we couldn't get the goa'uld out of him. I was, in some way, respecting his wishes. Having his back then, had been killing him. But Carter had wanted to talk with the entity. She didn't see the risk; just like Daniel, she had believed it was a nice lost alien. Would she have understood why I had to kill it? Why I threatened to destroy its world? Could she understand why I killed her?

I can't describe the relief I felt when we discovered that she was alive, and we were able to return her conscious mind to her body.

Yet, I was full of doubts. I had killed Carter. Could she trust me after that? Only a few months ago, she had seen how much darkness was hidden in the back of my mind; she discovered that I could execute a man. She had never before seen the sniper, the assassin in me. And she had been afraid of him. Now she had seen him again, and this time directed at her or more accurately the entity inside her. But would she see the difference? I'm having a hard time doing it. Can I really expect her to see it?

* * *

When I finally got back home, it was way past midnight, and Cassie was already sleeping. The house was dark, so Janet was probably sleeping too – we drive separate cars to the base to avoid the both of us getting stranded every time one of us was needed – as she left the base in time for dinner.

I was only partly right. Cassandra was indeed sleeping, and Janet was in our room but she wasn't sleeping. She was in bed, but still awake reading a book. She was obviously waiting for me.

She ordered me to have a warm shower, and when I came back in the shorts and t-shirt that she had left for me in the bathroom, a large glass of Scotch was waiting for me on my nightstand.

I got inside the bed, and rested against the headboard. Janet turned the dim lamp of her nightstand off knowing that I could manage in a dark room without trouble.

"That's the only one you're getting. I know the last time you ate was before the entity took control of Sam," she ordered firmly. I knew she meant it, and also that she was right, so I didn't argue, I just nodded.

I grabbed her hand in mine, and she came close to me, fusing her body to mine. She rested her head on my chest and I felt her drift into sleep within minutes.

I found myself thinking about Sara… and fear. I've seen fear in the eyes of many people when they looked at me in the past. Surprisingly, I never saw it in Sara or in Janet. Maybe Ferretti was right, and we weren't that far away from the rings and the vows.

Anyway, feeling Janet sleep so close to me helped me relax and find some semblance of peace. I did what I had to do, and I'll have to find a way to heal my team, to rebuild what had been broken, but I think we'll make it. Teal'c understood so no problem there; Daniel was bound to be angry but if I gave him time to think, he would understand too; and Carter will find a way to trust me again like she had always done. She hadn't always liked my decisions, sometimes she had despised them, but she has always trusted and respected me as an officer, even when she hadn't liked me much. SG1 was strong team, we'll heal in time.

Until then I'll have Janet's silent and unwavering support. With that last thought, I dragged both our bodies into the sheets, and drifted to sleep hoping against hope for a dreamless sleep.

At least I knew that Janet would be there when the nightmares came.


	12. Time

**Chapter 12:** Time

 **Season/episode:** Season 4 - “Double Jeopardy” (4x21), and “Exodus” (4x22). Season 5 - “Enemies” (5x01).

* * *

 

The last months have been hard on everyone, especially SG1. When I shot Carter, the balance in the team was broken and we’ve needed to regain it. Daniel was angry for a long time, and Carter was withdrawn. I expected it, but it didn’t make it any easier or any less painful.

Fortunately, Carter came to terms with what happened pretty fast following a long talk with Janet; and her wariness around me disappeared slowly. Daniel was a completely different matter, though. We butted heads about the issue and how I dealt with the Entity more than once. I don’t think he understood that it never intended to talk to us until I pointed out that it was the P4X-377 version of me. I won because I was playing against myself. I don’t think pointing that out helped much; it may have even made things worse. It took a lot of mulling over it, soul-searching, and quite a few conversations with Teal’c, Janet, and I for Daniel to finally come to terms with ‘the incident’. He did seem to go back to normal, to regain his trust in me, after a while.

It had been a slow healing process and we’d done a bunch of boring missions until I felt that my team was truly ready to go back to real work. I’m extremely glad I didn’t have to face this on my own; I had Janet and Cassie on my side all the way.

* * *

 

We were finally going to get our first real mission after the incident as soon as Daniel came back from his archeological mission with SG13, when all hell broke loose with one word: ‘comtraya’. I hate that word with a passion, let me tell you.

Harlan came to the SGC asking for help to rescue our robotic counterparts who now apparently had cooked up some cool batteries and were going around the galaxy doing missions. It turned out to be a good thing because it alerted us of the invasion of P2X-729, Juna, a primitive planet that we helped liberate from Heru’ur.

Cronus had taken over Juna for some reason and unburied the ‘gate, taking the habitants by surprise and submitting them by fear. Only Darien was willing to help them. And if that wasn’t enough, we had to deal with my annoying robotic clone. However, in the end we were able to kill Cronus and his Jaffas with the help of the robotic SG1 and Darien. We convinced Darien’s people that the Goa’uld aren’t Gods showing them Cronus’ body, and left them with a permanent radio system hidden near the gate to allow them to dial the SGC for help if needed.

We also decided to dismantle the bodies of our robotic counterparts to avoid any kind of problems. Well, Hammond and I made that decision, Carter wanted to study them until I explained how dangerous it could be if the information in their heads were to fall in the wrong hands. Not to mention that I found the idea of an egghead pocking into the dead parts of my clone extremely creepy. That seemed to hit home because she grimaced and proceed to dismantle the robots on our way back home in Cronus’ ship.

Yep, you heard right, we kept the ship and took it back to Earth. Sadly, thanks to the Tok’ra, we lost it again only two weeks later.

I’m not exactly sure how but we got roped into helping the Tok’ra move out of Vorash and to a new planet using the ha’tak to transport the stargate to a planet unknown by the System Lords.

Until now, the Tok’ra had been using Tanith to feed false Intel to Apophis but with the move they needed to protect the location of their new base so it was time to free Hebron, the host, and eliminate the Goa’uld. They arrested Tanith but he escaped his cell and the underground base, and alerted Apophis of the move. This prompted him to travel to Vorash’s solar system in an attempt of destroying the Tok’ra before they could escape.

The plan changed completely with those events. The Tok’ra evacuated using the stargate to accelerate the process, while Jacob and my team planned an ambitious and crazy plan to try and destroy Apophis’ fleet.

The incredibly wacko plan consisted of dialing P3W-451, the planet that was being sucked in by a black hole, and ejecting the stargate near Vorash’s sun so that it could suck some of the sun’s mass to disrupt the balance between the explosive force of the fusion and the gravity force of the star. This should blow up the sun destroying the entire solar system and Apophis’ fleet with it. Like I said, crazy, wacko, insane plan!

Surprisingly, it did work. Mostly. The sun did explode. It did destroy the solar system and Apophis’ fleet. But it also pushed our ship off its course while in hyperspace, which basically sent us four million light-years away from Vorash or 150 years away from home. Let me tell you I was NOT happy about it.

However, our problems didn’t end there. Apophis’ ha’tak survived the explosion in the same way we did: by jumping into hyperspace just in time to end right beside us in the middle of nowhere.

And let’s not forget that Teal’c’s stupid revenge issue got him either killed or at least captured by Tanith, and therefore by Apophis. Teal’c let his feelings control him and acted irrationally risking his life and mine to extract revenge from Tanith for killing Sha’nauc. His only success was to get shot and captured. I was fairly sure that before Apophis could start with his game of torture, he was going to have to resuscitate our angry Jaffa friend in the sarcophagus. I resolved that if we survived this mess, I was going to read him the riot act. I have to trust Teal’c; I can’t have him go off like this again.

You’d think that those are enough problems, but with our luck, no they weren’t. A replicator ship appeared out of nowhere and attacked Apophis’ ha’tak, and took control of it. At the time, we managed to avoid them by hiding in the coronasphere of the blue giant at the center of the system, which basically made us undetectable by the other ships’ sensors thanks to the radiation and gave us enough time to repair the shields, weapons and other systems of our ship. Unfortunately repairing the hyperdrive was impossible without new crystals. This forced us to board Apophis’ ship as soon as we got out of our hiding spot to try to steal his crystals. Our sensors didn’t detect any life signs and we indeed found the Jaffa dead, so we took the crystals and ran out of there before the self-destruct blew up the ship.

Two very annoying things survived the explosion: Apophis and a bunch of Jaffa, a brainwashed Teal’c included, who escaped in a cargo ship; and at least one of those damned techno-bugs. The latter infested our ship, took control of it and improved the engines enough to take us back to the Milky Way in a few hours. The former took control of our ship and locked us out in a room.

The good thing is that the replicators left our door open giving us the opportunity to escape and get a hold of the cargo ship. I had to shoot Teal’c to rescue him, but at least, after a while he was properly tied and immobilized in the back side of the cargo ship.

Once we were in the Milky Way, the replicators were taking the ship to Apophis’ base, Delmak, so we destroyed the sublight engines’ control crystals rendering the replicators unable from decelerating the ship and instead making it crash against the planet and its atmosphere, killing both the replicators and Apophis.

We managed to escape in the cargo ship and take Teal’c with us. Sadly, it was a brainwashed Teal’c. Remember what I said about reading him the riot act if we got out of this mission alive? Forget it. Once he’s back to normal, I’m going to kick his ass… hard.

* * *

 

At our arrival to the SGC, I was forced to put Teal’c in the brig and have some of my best SFs guarding him 24/7 with zats and orders to shoot first and ask questions never. We debriefed Hammond and he dispatched SG7 to find Bra’tac in the hopes he could help us regain Teal’c’s brain. Then Jacob left to the new Tok’ra base, and I gave SG1 a day off to rest and recuperate some strength before we try to tangle the brainwashed Jaffa issue.

I went back home to my family exhausted and more than a little angry. Teal’c’s current condition was a direct result of his revenge rampage. He put his life and mine at risk, and now he was a risk for the security of the SGC, and therefore Earth, because he lost sight of the big picture and shook revenge at all costs. If we couldn’t undo the brainwashing we’d be forced to either incarcerate him for life or kill him. I may be forced to execute my friend. Angry didn’t cover it.

The only good thing of the two weeks of useless deprogramming procedures that followed was having Janet’s support. Hammond and I struggled with Carter’s and Daniel’s faith in healing him, unable to voice to them the consequences of failing or how close we were to the time limit we had been given. Only two more weeks extracted from the President after a very long argument pointing out the great amount of Intel Teal’c could provide, and that the Jaffa rebellion needed Teal’c, and we needed the Jaffa rebellion. It could be a great tactical advantage against the Goa’uld but it needed to grow, and for it to grow it needed Teal’c.

Time was running out for him. Fast.

I didn’t sleep much during those two weeks, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at all without Janet by my side. I’m not sure how would I have dealt with this situation on my own.

How am I gonna live with the knowledge of having killed three of my subordinates: Kawalsky, Carter and now Teal’c? Sure, Carter is alive, but it doesn’t change the fact that I shot her with a zat, twice. I can’t let the NID or anyone just as nice and tender make him a guinea pig. If we can’t get him back, for his own shake, I’d have to kill him. Just like Kawalsky, Teal’c trusts us to do it. Hammond and I are in agreement over this, but it doesn’t change anything. I own Teal’c, at the very least, to be the one pulling the tigger. But then what? How do we explain it to Rya’c? What will happen to the Jaffa Rebellion? How do I live with it?

Yet, I could never live with myself if I let him became a lab rat or continue being a slave for the Goa’uld. I have no alternative.

I just hope Janet’s support can be enough to get me through this.


	13. Primum Non Nocere

**Chapter 13:** Primum Non Nocere

 **Season/episode:** Season 5 - “Threshold” (5x02)

* * *

 

Bra’tac arrived at the SGC with only one week to go. Only seven days to help Teal’c, and he came with a rather weak and scary plan to save our Jaffa friend.

He wanted to perform the Rite of M’al Sharran which basically consisted of taking the symbiote out of Teal’c. This would eliminate his immune system and take him to organ failure and cardiac arrest; it would take him to death’s door. He seemed to believe that under this stress Teal’c’s mind would find the truth. He had done it twice in his very long life and in both occasions the Jaffa had found freedom but they paid with their lives. Not very promising, if you ask me, but we were out of options.

He shocked us when he took the larva out of his pouch bag without warning, but knowing that Teal’c didn’t face immediate risk, I ordered Janet to put the Goa’uld in a tank to preserve its life until Bra’tac could explain what the hell he was doing. Reasoning with Janet is a hell of a lot easier than with a 137 year-old Jaffa.

Then we all met in the debriefing room to allow, or rather demand, Bra’tac to explain the procedure. It was then when we discovered the process would probably kill Teal’c.

* * *

 

“Wait! Jaffa healers don’t really know resuscitation procedures, right?” Jack asked out loud, even if it was mostly directed to Janet.

“From what I’ve learned of Jaffa medicine, no, they don’t,” Janet answered seeing some kind of hope. “You think that we could resuscitate him?”

“I don’t know. You’re the doctor, you tell me. Bra’tac had deprogrammed two Jaffa this way, the problem is that they die. But if we put the symbiote back in and use the right techniques, maybe…” Jack answered her.

“It may be possible, but he risk is extremely high. I don’t like it,” the doctor admitted.

“I don’t like it either but we don’t have more options, Janet. We are running out of time. Teal’c wouldn’t want to live like this; he’d make the same decision as Kawalsky. And let’s get real for a minute, if he doesn’t go back to normal, there’s only one way this can end.”

Janet knew what Jack was talking about, after so many nights dealing with his nightmares, insomnia, and borderline depression. They’ve also talked extensively about Teal’c’s feelings and desires. What would Teal’c want if he could make a choice was obvious to Jack, probably because he’d choose the same thing, and to be honest Janet trusted that he was right. They could either try this, and risk Teal’c dying, or they could condemn him to slavery or death.Neither was a good option, but obviously the lesser evil was trying.

“I’d have to monitor him constantly, and as soon as he goes into cardiac arrest I will revive him. I’d need the tank with the symbiote at hand so I can reintroduce it stat, if there’s any hope of this plan working.”

* * *

 

Decision made, we found ourselves in the isolation room two watching over our semi-conscious, semi-delusional, brainwashed friend.

The isolation room held the tank with the symbiote which was being monitored closely to ensure its survival. If the snake died, the rite would be for nothing, Teal’c would die with it. It also held a defibrillator table and quite a big variety of drugs designed to help with the resuscitation techniques. Everything was ready to act stat, like Janet had ordered. This was at the end of the day a medical matter, so once we decided to proceed, she was in charge.

Of course, in the center of the room, strapped firmly to the infirmary bed and to a ton of medical equipment, including a monitor and an IV, was Teal’c.

Bra’tac left to kel’no’reem for the night, leaving the rest of us to take turns in being with Teal’c. His advanced age means he requires much more hours of meditation than Teal’c, and that they are not as effective. Not only that, if we don’t find an alternative to the symbiotes, he would be dead in two years. The larva he carries currently would reach maturity then, and even if he could find a new one, the larva would reject his body for being too old.

* * *

 

I decided to take a two-hour rest taking Janet with me to my in-base quarters, send Daniel to sleep for six hours, and leave Sam with Teal’c. This was really hard for Janet, just standing by doing nothing, and she was going to be indispensable at a later time, so she needed to get some rest now.

As soon as I closed the door behind us, she threw herself to my arms. I held her tight and let her unload. I found it hard to watch her cry. She was inconsolable. I kept reminding her that this gave Teal’c a fighting chance he didn’t have without the rite. There really was nothing I could do but support her, like she had done with me during these past weeks. I gotta admit it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do.

Finally, she cried herself to sleep, and at least she slept an hour before we both went back to the infirmary.

* * *

 

Janet and I rejoined Carter in the isolation room, and soon Hammond joined us too. Teal’c was getting weaker by the moment, and it was becoming obvious that it was going to be time for Janet to act very soon. I sent someone to bring Bra’tac back ASAP; we were going to need him soon.

Bra’tac hadn’t even reached the infirmary when Teal’c entered into cardiac arrest and Janet started giving orders to the nurses to get the cart and be ready to reanimate. The old master argued against it briefly, but it became obvious, at least for me, it was time to let Janet do her magic. I trust her to do the right thing; she knows what’s at stake. I stopped Bra’tac and gently moved him aside to leave enough space around Teal’c for the medical team to work. We trusted the old Jaffa until now; time for him to trust us.

Thankfully, Janet and her team resuscitated Teal’c pretty fast, and he came back normal, no more brainwashed bullshit about Apophis being a God. He was back to claiming that Apophis was a dead, false god. I don’t think I can express how relieved I was seeing that we were going to get our friend back in one piece and with his brain intact.

* * *

 

It was two days later when Janet cleared him to leave the infirmary and go back to active duty, when he came looking for Hammond and me. He wanted to thank us for trusting Bra’tac and allowing him to do the Rite of M’al Sharran.

“You have given me back my freedom. For that I thank you both.”

“You’re welcome, Teal’c. I’m just glad it worked,” Hammond said solemnly.

“Yeah, same here. But you should thank Janet. That rite of yours would have killed you without her,” Jack told his Jaffa friend. “Oh, and you and I are going to have a long conversation about Jaffa revenge as soon as you’re done with the thanking.”

Jack voice was now stern, leaving the Jaffa with no doubts about who was in charge of SG1 and making clear to Teal’c that his friend and commander was more than angry with him.

Teal’c understood. He had been captured and brainwashed because of his own stupidity, he had allowed his feelings to dictate his actions instead of his brain, and with it he had put himself, O’Neill, the SGC, and Earth at risk. In his brainwashed state of mind he could have given Apophis vital information to render the SGC defenseless to an attack and if it had fallen, Earth would have fallen with it. And then, who would fight against the Goa’uld? The Tok’ra weren’t really progressing in their fight with their long-term plan, which in Teal’c’s opinion was simply put ridiculous. The Jaffa Rebellion was still too small to be an active and powerful force against the System Lords. Earth and the SGC was currently the only real army capable of freeing the galaxy from the Goa’uld. He definitively owed his commander an apology and he would have to work to regain O’Neill’s trust.

“There is no need, O’Neill. The need for revenge clouded my mind. I made an error in judgment. I hope you can forgive me and I can regain your trust in time, my friend.”

“Good. Thank Janet. And you own her a big box of some nice and expensive chocolates,” Jack said deciding to forgive his friend and move on. If he understood the mistake he’d made and the risks involved in it, there was no need to talk it to death. Not talking about the incident to death and forgiving his friend didn’t mean that he wasn’t angry with him anymore, though.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow at O’Neill’s retreating back looking for an explanation for his words.

* * *

 

“Doctor Fraiser, do you have a moment?” Teal’c asked the petite doctor upon entering the infirmary the next morning.

“Of course, Teal’c. What do you want?” Janet said indicating the big man to follow her into her office.

“I wish to thank you for saving my life. O’Neill told me I would not have survived without your expertise.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Teal’c. I’m a doctor; my job is to keep you alive and healthy.”

“I still hope you can accept my gratitude. And my apologies. I am aware that the Rite of M’al Sharran goes against your beliefs, yet you allowed O’Neill and Bra’tac to perform it and assisted them to it. I am truly sorry for your pain,” the Jaffa said sincerely.

“Primum non nocere. First, do no harm. That’s the vow every doctor makes. You tell me between this rite and slavery, what would have hurt you most?”

Teal’c bowed his head accepting her forgiveness.

“However,” the doctor continued after a moment, “I am a doctor. To stand by and do nothing but watching you die slowly was painful and goes against my training and everything I believe.”

The Jaffa inclined his head again, this time in apology. “O’Neill made clear that his forgiveness is tied to yours. He cannot forgive my betrayal and stupidity, if his mate cannot forgive the pain I caused.” He then put a box of chocolates on her desk. Following O’Neill’s statement in the general’s office, Hammond had recommended him to go with MajorCarter to buy the sweets and allow her to choose the right box.

Janet picked the box up from the desk and looked at it. “Chocolates?” she asked with a small smile and the Jaffa relaxed knowing the healer will, in time, forgive him.

“O’Neill suggested it. MajorCarter chose them. I hope they are of your liking, DoctorFraiser.”

“They are; thank you, Teal’c. Don’t worry about Jack. He has forgiven you; he’s just angry but he’ll get over it in time. As I will.”

Teal’c inclined his head to acknowledge her words, and with a short goodbye left the office letting the doctor go back to work. He was at peace; he had made amends to O’Neill and DoctorFraiser. O’Neill will trust him again when they go back to the field, of that he had no doubt.


	14. Secrets

**Chapter 14:** Secrets

 **Season/episode:** Season 5 – episode 3- “Ascension”

* * *

 

“Sir,” Jack called drawing the attention of the General and seeking permission to enter his office with only one word.

Hammond waved him in, and the colonel closed the door behind him. “Someone is spying on Carter, sir. My guess would be the NID. I sent Dixon to check Daniel’s apartment and my house discretely to make sure that they’re only spying on Carter.”

“Good. Why do you think they’re spying on her?”

“Again it’s a guess, but I suppose the weapon on P4X-636… or the alien.”

“You think Major Carter really has an alien living in her house?”

“Well, either that or she’s gone nuts. I think she’s stable enough. I’m gonna talk with her off the record now. I had Janet distract her and take her to the mess; I’ll pick her up there and take her to my office. See what she has to say.”

“The Pentagon is putting pressure on me to test the weapon. If there’s something about it Major Carter, or the alien, knows, then we need to know.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack answered firmly and left his CO’s office.

* * *

 

Jack entered the mess hall acting casual and, after getting himself a coffee, joined Janet and Sam on their table.

“Morning, ladies. Coffee break?”

“It’s afternoon, Jack,” Janet corrected him, even though she knew perfectly well that it was all an act. She knew he was worried about something related to ‘636, the weapon found there, or the alien in Sam’s house. He was acting stealthily, kind of like a spy, so probably NID or someone with equally high moral standards was being naughty. He had asked her to keep Sam busy and in the SGC until he could talk with her, and that’s what she was going to do. She trusted Jack; she could go with the flow, and play his game of spies.

“Afternoon, sir,” Carter answered trying not to let her irritation show. She was more than a little angry with Colonel O’Neill and General Hammond for not believing her.

“Well, when you finish, I need to talk to you, Carter. I think it’s time we talk about your long hours in the lab and the need of rest and vacations.”

“Yes, sir,” Sam bit out trying to conceal her anger.

Walter approached their table just in time to stop Carter from saying something stupid to the colonel. “Sir, Colonel Dixon called and relayed a message for you.”

Jack nodded, implicitly asking the sergeant to give him the message. “He said: blue skies, no sign of a storm. And then he added: gorgeous rock, Jack,” Walter said clearly confused by Dixon’s words. To be honest so were Carter and Janet.

“Great. Thanks, Walter,” Jack answered the bemused technician. The message obviously made sense to him.

He swallowed the last of his coffee, and stood up making clear that he expected Carter to follow him.

“See you tonight, Janet,” he said casually on his way out of the commissary.

* * *

 

Grumbling angrily all the way from the cafeteria to his office, Carter followed him and the colonel closed the door behind them.

“Okay, Carter. This room is completely clean and secured, and from what Dixon tells me so are Daniel’s apartment and my house. The only one that’s being spied on is you. Obviously, whoever is doing it is after ‘636’s weapon or your alien friend.”

Samantha Carter had been surprised a lot of times in her life, even more since she joined the SGC, but never so much. She had been convinced that her superiors thought her crazy and didn’t believe a word she was saying. Apparently she was wrong.

“Don’t look so surprised, Carter. Our people are very good; they don’t leave bugs behind by mistake.”

“Yes, sir,” she croaked still quite surprised, but trying to get her bearings.

“The Pentagon is pushing to test the weapon. I’m willing to bet the NID and a lot of other people have a great interest in it too. So I need to know exactly what’s happening. If your alien friend has anything to say, I need to know.”

“Yes, sir,” Carter answered more firmly. She was more relaxed seeing that they believed her, and she had gotten over her shock. “But I don’t really know much. The alien, Orlin, didn’t say much. He’s made of energy, can make himself invisible and followed me from Velona.”

“Velona?”

“P4X-636, sir. That’s what he called the planet. He had lived there alone for a very long time; at least that’s what he said.”

“Okay. Does he know anything about the weapon or what happened to the inhabitants?”

Carter shrugged to show that she didn’t know.

O’Neill acknowledged it with a nod and gave his orders. “Ask him. Then report to me whatever he tells you tomorrow morning here in my office. Until then, be careful with what you do or say in your house. That bug you found is probably not the only one.”

“Oh, and Carter, don’t forget that we think you’re crazy,” he added making clear that he didn’t want whoever was spying on her to know that the SGC knew about it.

“Yes, sir,” Carter answered smiling, and left the colonel’s office to go back to her lab to continue studying Velona’s weapon.

* * *

 

The next morning, Carter reported to Colonel O’Neill’s office with some very interesting information.

“So you’re telling me that he’s one of those glowy ancients, like Oma Desala. He told the people of Velona how to build that big honking weapon to defend themselves from the Goa’uld, but once they were done with the snake-heads they wanted to conquer the galaxy, and “the others” killed them and destroyed their entire civilization,” the colonel summed up asking for confirmation.

Carter nodded. “Well, that’s an interesting take on the not interfering rule…” he said cynically.

“The point, sir, is that if we try to test the weapon…”

“The others would probably kill our people to prevent it,” he finished the sentence for her.

“Yes, sir. And once they start the test, there will be no way to stop it. To power the weapon we have to overload a naquada generator, and then release the energy into the weapon. If we stop, the generator will explode.”

“I’ll talk to Hammond, and stop the test,” Jack said trying to reassure the major.

“Sir, Orlin is no longer energy. He’s human again. If we reveal this information, they’ll know about him. Who knows what they’ll do to him?” Sam argued. She wanted to protect Orlin.

“They already know you have an alien in your house, Carter. Why do you think they’re only spying on you? They’ve already set their minds on capturing your alien friend. Lying is not going to keep him safe.” Jack didn’t like being so forceful with the major, but sometimes her naivety got to him.

* * *

 

Simmons pushed to get the test done, and the Pentagon was too blind to the risks because they could only see the big honking weapon, so in their immense stupidity they ignored Hammond and Jack, and ordered SG16 with Reynolds in command to test the weapon.

With Reynolds already on P4X-636, Colonel Simmons revealed to Hammond that they had been investigating Carter and they had footage of the alien. He claimed to have Carter’s house surrounded and was ready to capture the alien.

Carter was about to launch in an angry diatribe against the NID colonel, to try to defend her alien friend, when Jack lifted his index finger telling them to shut up. He picked up the phone and made a call.

“Dixon, status,” he barked into the phone.

“The hostile team has been neutralized; they’re all properly tied up and knocked out in the back of their pretty black van. We’ve control over Carter’s house. The alien has been a while in the basement. I was about to call you; you wouldn’t believe what he’s doing. He’s building a stargate out of junk!” Dixon’s voice came loud and clear through the phone.

“Good. Hold your position, Dave. Pick him up without harming him if you can. But whatever happens, do NOT follow him through it.” Jack hung up and glared at Simmons. “You think you’re good, Simmons, but I’m better.”

“You can’t do that. I demand you let my men go,” Simmons shouted angrily.

“That’s where you’re wrong. Rough cells of NID almost cost us our best and more powerful allies in the past. Following SGC’s SOP to the letter, we’re authorized to arrest anyone conducting any kind of apparently illegal surveillance on any personnel of the base. Up until five minutes ago, we didn’t know this one was ordered by the Pentagon. We still have to determine that those men are indeed your men, and were following your and the Pentagon’s orders. Until that happens, they’ll have a cozy place in our brig,” O’Neill answered coolly. He was enjoying one-upping Simmons on this one.

“General, my guess is that Orlin is going to dial ‘636 to stop the test. Anyone in that planet when the test happens is going to die, so I’m not willing to send anyone there. But maybe we could call Reynolds and stop him in time,” Jack suggested turning to look at the general. “And we have to make sure they can’t dial in once they overload the generator. If it explodes, the blast will take down the entire SGC. And that’s without taking into consideration the radiation. I recommend recalling SG16 and canceling the test.”

“I’d love to do that, Colonel, but I have orders.”

“Those orders are going to kill four of our people, and if we don’t take precautions, everyone in the SGC, sir. The radiation coming through the gate could kill thousands of civilians in Colorado Springs,” Jack insisted.

“Very well, Colonel. Dial ‘636 and tell Colonel Reynolds that we are postponing the test. I’ll call the Pentagon and the President again. And keep in contact with Colonel Dixon; tell him to bring Orlin here unharmed,” Hammond finally conceded. He had orders and he couldn’t cancel the test, but he could postpone it for security reasons. Maybe they could reason with the big-wigs if they had a little more time.

“Yes, sir,” Jack answered politely and left the office through the door connecting to the debriefing room. He intended on going to the control room and dialing P4X-636 to relay the new orders to Reynolds ASAP. He gave one last order to Carter on his way out, though, “Carter, join Dixon in your house.”

With a quick, “yes, sir,” Major Carter left the General’s office in a hurry intending to get to her house immediately.

Colonel Simmons argued or at least tried it, but he was ignored by… well, everyone. Finally, Hammond had to order him out of his office while he called the President.

* * *

 

O’Neill ordered Walter to dial P4X-636 and radioed Reynolds only to find that the Marine colonel had already started the overload of the generator.

“How long before the explosion, Reynolds?” Jack barked into the microphone.

“10 minutes, sir. Major Carter found a way to overload it slower than usual to allow us to use most of its energy…”

“Ah,” Jack cut him off, “I don’t care. The gate is too far away. I’m sorry, Reynolds, but I’m ordering you to put ‘636 in quarantine. You are not allowed to dial the gate unless you can come up with an uninhabited planet. We’ll be closing our end and locking it up to protect the base. I hope you can release the energy into the weapon without the others acting. Good luck.”

He ordered Walter to close the communication and shut the gate down. “Dial the Alpha base, report to the officer in charge, and keep the connection going for the whole 38 minutes. Oh, and Walter, close the iris as soon as you get a connection with Alpha.”

Walter just nodded and proceeded to do as ordered. Colonel O’Neill couldn’t risk Reynolds disobeying his orders and dialing Earth or the Alpha base.

The Colonel then contacted Dixon again who reported that Orlin had time to finish his little recycling project and had dialed the gate.

“What did you say, Dixon? I must have wax in my ears because I thought you said that Carter jumped through the gate with the alien. I’m sure I’m wrong, because if you let my second in command do that, I’m going to have your balls, Dave,” Jack said in an annoyed and yet cold voice to the phone.

“She said that she could talk with him, get him out of there. I told her not to do anything stupid. I thought jumping through a gate made of junk to a planet about to explode was implied,” Dixon answered knowing full well that Jack’s voice meant he was dead meat.

“Okay, Dixon, dismantle the gate, check the house for anything that shouldn’t be there and bring everything back to the SGC. Bring the hostile team too, directly to the brig until we sort them out. Then report to the General’s office.”

His orders given, Jack sighed annoyed with his second in command, with Simmons, with the stupid big-wigs in the Pentagon that were about to get five of his people and one alien killed. He felt like killing someone, preferably Simmons and whoever he convinced to give the order to test the weapon.

He went back up to Hammond’s office to report, and wait for whatever outcome this sorry excuse of an op had.

He was more than a little angry. What was with his team recently? They were getting really bad at obeying his orders. He was going to have a serious talk with them, including Carter, if she came back alive from this one. He has disobeyed orders in the past, but always for a good reason. His team seemed to do it randomly or for stupid reasons: Jaffa revenge, a crush on an alien… it was getting old really, really fast, as far as he was concerned.

On his way to Hammond’s office, he found Simmons in the briefing room, seated at the table looking really angry. He didn’t like losing, it seems. Jack didn’t feel sorry for him; he was sure that Simmons was the new head of the rough NID cell, he just couldn’t prove it. If he played his cards right, he may have to shoot him during his arrest. Jack was starting to hope for it.

Hammond was in his office looking as discouraged as Jack felt. Someone from the control room had probably already reported to him. Jack knocked at his door and went in without waiting for the General’s permission.

“I’m sure you already know that Carter went to ‘636,” Jack started his report.

“Yes, Jack, I know. Dixon is on his way with the prisoners. He left his team to clean up,” Hammond answered. “Sit down, Jack. There’s nothing more we can do but wait.”

Soon enough, Dixon joined them and filled the silence with an unnecessarily detailed report. None of the three officers were happy with what was happening and Hammond had already shouted at anyone who would listen at the Pentagon. So the only thing left was to wait and hope that “the others” hadn’t killed their people, or that they had dialed out of the planet to an uninhabited one.

The 38 minutes limit came up and the gate shut off. Before Walter could come up to report it, the three officers ran down to the control room.

“Dial ‘636 and close the iris as soon as it’s possible,” Jack ordered Walter. “Evacuate the gate room, close the blast doors. The window too, Walter.”

“Yes, sir,” Walter answered and dutifully ordered everyone out of the gate room, and sealed it before dialing the gate.

Hammond saw that his second was in control of the situation, and knew very well the dangers of it, therefore allowed him to give the orders. Jack would get the job done, as safely as possible.

“Jack?” Dixon prompted the other colonel to explain the precautions.

“Radiation,” Jack answered simply.

Dave nodded acknowledging the wisdom in the orders. “Maybe I should go down there. God knows three kids are enough… Those little devils are going to kill me. I may be doing myself a favor,” he joked trying to lift Jack’s spirit a little.

Jack snorted at Dixon’s dark brand of humor, and tried to establish communication with anyone on the planet. “Carter? Reynolds? SG16? This is O’Neill, do you hear?”

“We hear you loud and clear, sir,” Reynolds answered. “We have two wounded and we’ll need a med team waiting for us, sir. Carter is okay, sir, but the alien died.”

“Is it safe for you to come home, Carter?” Jack asked his second.

“Yes, sir,” they heard the major answer.

“Good. Pick up all our junk and come back,” Jack ordered. Anyone that knew him could hear the anger in his voice. Jack O’Neill was pissed off and someone was going to pay for it.

* * *

 

Reynolds winced at the cold anger coming from O’Neill’s voice. He had heard enough about the man to feel sorry for whoever was on the receiving end of his anger.

“Just out of morbid curiosity, Major, did he order you not to gate to ‘636? And while we’re at it, how the hell did you get past SGC’s security to gate here?” he asked the blonde major on their way to the gate.

“I didn’t use our stargate, sir. Orlin built a stargate in my basement. I jumped after him,” she explained. “And I guess he kind of ordered me not to go through it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said cynically. “O’Neill was angry enough with the Pentagon for sending us here, so I’m sorry, but you’re on your own with him.”

* * *

 

Soon SG16 and Carter were back in the SGC. They were all taken to the infirmary, the two wounded needed to be treated, and everyone needed to be checked out for possible radiation problems.

“Doctor Fraiser, what’s SG16’s and Major Carter’s status?” General Hammond asked the petite doctor seated at the debriefing table with SG1, Reynolds and himself.

“Lieutenants Blake and Morgan have a few bruises and a concussion, but they’ll make a full recovery in a few weeks. Everyone else is perfectly fine, sir. No signs of any damage resulting from exposure to radiation,” she answered succinctly.

“Good,” was the only thing the General said.

“Dixon has checked Simmons’ men out. They all came from the Pentagon and he’s sure they’re clean. He had already freed them. And Simmons is on his way back to the Pentagon blowing a fuss,” O’Neill reported his part of the news.

“Fortunately, my last phone call to the President convinced him of our point of view. What’s left of SG16 on active duty will accompany you Jack back to ‘636 to destroy the weapon. We don’t want anyone else trying to use it,” Hammond informed all of them.

“Now, Major, care to explain why you decided that jumping after Orlin to P4X-636 was a good idea?” the general asked glaring at the major.

“Yep. Through a stargate made of junk, to a planet about to go to hell no less,” Jack added directing the full force of his anger to his second in command, “and let’s not forget, I specifically ordered that no one was to follow him!”

“Sorry, sirs. I really thought I could help,” she answered contritely.

“We’ll talk about it later, Carter,” Jack stated. He clearly wasn’t satisfied with his second’s answer but he wasn’t going to reprimand her in public.

“Yes, sir,” the major responded knowing that her CO was more than angry with her.

* * *

 

“What’s with them, Janet? When did ignoring me become their pastime?” Jack asked the doctor while they made their way into their house.

“Jack, you disobey orders when you think they should be disobeyed,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, but I don’t do it blindly so I can get revenge or because I have a crush on an alien, or because I can’t see the big picture. I try to get them to see when they should obey and when they should give me alternatives, argue or even disobey, but it seems to me that they’re learning nothing,” he argued back.

“You really think she followed him because she had a crush on him?” she asked concerned.

“It sure looked that way…” Jack sighed. “I don’t know… maybe she just got a little too involved… but my point stands.”

Janet nodded. He was right; even if Sam felt only friendly concern for Orlin, it went far enough that she went on a suicide mission after him. If the test was successful, “the others” would have killed them; if it wasn’t then the explosion would have. There really was no way out. They got lucky, extremely lucky, when “the others” allowed Orlin to ascend again and take the generator with him.

She decided that it was time to help him relax, though. They were home early; Cass was still in school, so they had time for themselves.

Janet walked to him, and taking hold of his hand, she led him to their bedroom swaying her hips purposely. She heard him groan, but she knew that one, it meant she had already distracted him.

He will mull over his team; their recent actions, including Sam jumping through the junk-gate, as Dixon had started calling it; about what he was going to say to Sam tomorrow; and who knows what else.

But that will be later.

For now, she had his complete attention.

It was convenient, very convenient, because Dixon mentioned something about a “gorgeous rock” in his message; and it had been conveyed in a personal way. She wanted to know what that was about; and she had her own ways of getting information out of her black ops’ live-in boyfriend.

Granted, it only worked when he wanted them to work, but she was going to enjoy trying immensely.

Janet heard their bedroom’s door close behind them, guided Jack to the bed, and with a sensual smile, threw him on it. Jack smiled back and dragged her onto the bed with him.

_Oh, yeah, trying was going to be fun!_


	15. User 4574

**Chapter 15:** User 4574

 **Season/episode:** Season 5 –episode 4 – “The Fifth Man”

* * *

 

When SG1 minus Jack came back in hot from P7S-441 talking about a Lieutenant Tyler that had never worked at the SGC, things got more than a little crazy for a while.

It is not easy to manipulate Jack’s mind, so when General Hammond informed me that he was compromised too I was shocked, initially. Then my scientific mind kicked in and I knew there had to be an explanation for everything.

“Sir, there must be an explanation. I’ve isolated SG1, I’m testing them and their clothes, and I’ll find an explanation. Jack can survive until we know what’s going on and we can send help,” I told the General.

“Very well, do what you need. Find out what’s happening to them. I don’t like leaving Jack out there on his own any more than you, doctor. I assure you, I’ll do my best to get him back,” Hammond told me knowing I was worried about Jack.

“Yes, sir,” I replied trusting my CO. I knew him well enough to know that he was honest in his statements.

* * *

 

Colonel Frank Simmons was at the SGC to interrogate SG1 so quickly that if I hadn’t known better I’d thought the Asgard had beamed him in. He was obviously trying to use this mishap to his own benefit: destroy SG1, take Hammond out of command, get the SGC under the NID’s control, or more accurately his NID rough cell.

I was starting to see why Jack was so convinced that Simmons was the new head of the rogue NID. Jack was also sure that Kinsey was behind it, and seeing how quickly Simmons got access to everything, I had to agree with him.

He tried to intimidate Daniel by asking him questions about his past girlfriends and his wife, but he withstood his interrogation. He then questioned Teal’c’s loyalty to the Tau’ri, but Teal’c just threatened him. That was amusing to watch, so much I got a copy of the tape to show to Jack. He was going to laugh his ass off with it. Sam seemed to catch up with what was happening behind the scenes, and when Simmons interrogated her, she called his bluff. That was funny too; Simmons couldn’t end the interrogation fast enough. Yep, Jack really needed to watch those tapes; he was going to love it.

Well, as soon as I can explain what the hell is happening and Hammond can send SG1 back to P7S-441 to retrieve Jack…

* * *

 

It took a while, and being exposed to the same chemical as SG1, to discover the problem. Whoever Tyler was, he was an alien and somehow he had exposed the team to a chemical similar to cortical acetalone, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate and process memories in the human brain. He had implanted the idea of Tyler as a camouflage defense mechanism, kind of like a very complex and advanced chameleon. Obviously, their brains had filled in the details to form more comprehensive memories of the fake lieutenant.

I explained this to the General and told him that the effects had passed for the three Earth-bound members of the team, and that they only could be exposed again at close distance. He ordered SG1 back to the planet to retrieve Jack and maybe even find more evidence of this chameleonic alien.

Needless to say, I was extremely relieved to know that Jack could finally have his rescue mission. P7S-441 was crawling with Jaffa and there really was no way he could get out of there on his own. I wonder if the Jaffa were there to hunt the alien? That kind of camouflage technology could be extremely useful. Maybe we should try to replicate it too. I decided to keep the sample we had safe and ask the General about it when we debrief about the mission.

* * *

 

Simmons came looking for me while I was working on my reports. Well, to be honest, I was trying to distract myself and keep my mind off what was surely going on P7S-441. It had taken us a very long time to send the cavalry and I was extremely worried about Jack.

He wanted to interrogate me because of my relationship with Jack. I told him in no uncertain terms that it was not his business, but he seemed unaffected and continued pushing for something.

“You know, Doctor, you have an alien living in your house, you have a sexual relationship with the second in command of this base… I think there are a lot of issues here that can cause security problems for the program,” he said in a threatening voice.

I’m not sure if he wanted to convince me that he could have me court-martialed for living with Jack, or if he was trying to threaten Cassie. But I got fed up with him, his threats, and his need to invade my personal space.

“First, my relationship with Colonel O’Neill is above board, Colonel. Second, please, refrain yourself from invading my personal space. And third, let me assure you that if you touch me or my daughter, you won’t live long enough to regret it,” I told him in the most confident and cold voice I could muster.

“Are you threatening me, Doctor?” he asked in a teasing voice.

I got the feeling that he didn’t think I was capable of much. Well, fair enough, I’m a doctor, and he doesn’t have to fear me. He probably had read Jack’s file, though.

“There’s no need for me to threaten you, Colonel. I’ll just remind you who is the father of that alien you’re so worried about,” my voice got even colder. I’ve seen fear in many people’s eyes when Jack’s name was dropped, and I doubt the man in front of me even knew the word “courage”.

Predictably, he paled and backed off; turning around obviously angry. Somehow I got the impression that he assumed I was the weakest link and he could get something out of me. He wasn’t pleased to be proven wrong.

I don’t like people underestimating me because I’m a tiny female doctor, but why tell this guy that Jack had been training me?

Keeping secrets was Jack’s job, but he was rubbing it off on me, it seemed.

* * *

 

Not long after, SG1 as a whole came back and were sent to the infirmary for a complete check-up before they could clean up and debrief.

The General had the courtesy of calling me to let me know that they were back, uninjured. In his own words, “Jack is fine, just covered in mud and cranky”. I think he felt guilty for not sending a rescue party sooner. I thanked him and assured him that I understood the need for precautions. I didn’t like it, but I understood; more importantly, I knew that it was the right call.

Knowing that they were back, allowed me to concentrate enough to finish my reports while they were checked up. I had no intentions of staying at the base a minute longer than needed today. I wanted to spend the evening with Jack; I needed to convince myself that he was indeed perfectly fine.

I finally caught up with Jack in the looker room. I wanted a few minutes of privacy with him to assure myself that he was in perfect condition, and to tell him about Simmons. I wanted him to know that he had mentioned Cassie, and that it had felt like a threat.

I found only Teal’c and Jack in the room. Teal’c bowed at me in greeting and then left the room giving me the privacy I sought. He is a very intuitive man, and I had no doubt he knew exactly why I was there.

“I’m perfectly fine, Janet. I promise,” Jack hurried to reassure me.

“Yeah, I know. Hammond said you only were dirty and cranky,” I answered him with a smile.

“Well, I’m not dirty anymore,” he said pointing to himself. He had obviously just gotten out of the shower, and while he was dry and clean shaved, he was still wearing only a towel around his waist.

“I’m sure we can find a cure for the cranky part,” I said in a sensual voice I knew he couldn’t resist. He grinned, grabbed my hand, and pulled my body toward his for a hug.

I love Jack’s hugs; I’m convinced he’s the best hugger of the galaxy. I felt the tension I’d accumulated during this last incident leave me, and my body relax and mold to his. I could finally reassure myself that he was okay.

I let go of him reluctantly so he could get dressed. Meanwhile I told him what happened with Simmons. I saw his eyes darken with anger with every word I said, but when I mentioned Cassie, I thought he was going to go after Simmons now, half dressed as he was. I held his hand in an attempt to calm him down. It seemed to work, and I continued with the story.

Once I was done and he was dressed, he kissed me thoroughly. His right hand on the small of my back pressed me against his body. His left hand undid my braid and his fingers got tangled in my hair. His lips hungry and hot were glued to mine. His passion was evident to me; I could taste how much he wanted me.

Okay, that’s new, he had never done that in the SGC or in any mission… except when he almost died in the glider with Teal’c.

Jack broke the kiss but didn’t let go of me. He still needed the contact a little bit longer, and if I’m honest, I needed it too.

“That’s my girl! You scared Simmons off,” he said giving me his sexy smile.

I had to laugh. The things that made Jack tick were not what you would expect, ever.


	16. Light

**Chapter 16:** Light

 **Season/episode:** Season 5 – episode 5 – “Red Sky”

 **Warnings:** A small warning to my readers about the language in this chapter. It’s the appropriate language for a furious Jack O’Neill, so not for little ears.

* * *

 

I hate religious extremists! I absolutely fucking hate them! All of them! But I hate them even more when they cowardly send a pair of poor brainwashed, ignorant bastards to blow up something, killing themselves in the process… and worst, killing two of my men! Oh, and let’s not forget exterminating every human being on the planet!

When we gated to K’Tau, and the sky turned red, I had a terrible gut feeling. I knew something terrible was going to happen. I was proven right very quickly when Carter discovered that when we established the wormhole between Earth and K’Tau we crossed their sun and introduced some heavy element, like plutonium, into it. This destabilized the nuclear reactions occurring in it. The light of the sun changed to the infrared spectrum, which is really, really bad for the vegetation of a planet. The vegetation dies, the atmosphere goes to hell, and the planet dies. Obviously with it, so do the people living on it.

K’Tau is protected by the Asgard so we used their “Hall of Wisdom” to ask them for help, but they refused claiming that they couldn’t interfere with the natural development of the population on the planet. Truth is by being the gods of these people they were already interfering and making our job ten times harder. They were playing god. No better than the Goa’uld. I was royally pissed-off with their little grey asses too!

Carter came up with a plan, though. We commanded a rocket with the intention of launching it into K’Tau’s sun carrying a super-heavy element that would theoretically bond with the plutonium and reset the sun back to normal. We took the rocket in pieces to K’Tau, twenty engineers to build it, and SG6 for protection; it took us three weeks but it was almost ready to launch when Malchus screwed up. Malchus was the Chief Acolyte of their religious order, A.K.A. stupid, coward extremist, hell bent on getting his way and killing everyone! Malchus manipulated two of the villagers to sabotage the rocket which killed them, as well as Lieutenants Jenkins and McCoy, and in a more long-term scenario, the entire population on the planet.

As soon as I saw the fire from the rocket, I ordered Carter to dial the SGC and ask for a med team stat; then ran to help. It was useless. The rocket was destroyed so our plan to save the planet was a bust, we had a bunch of injured people, and we lost two members of SG6. We’re going to need DNA testing to put our two guys together. I wasn’t furious; I was beyond pissed-off. I was ready to put Malchus’ head on a pike.

At least we helped evacuate the area and took everyone else to the gate to meet with the med team. I took the rear end leaving the two living members of SG6 to guard the ruins of the rocket and wait for the cleaning crew.

I was surprised when I saw the med team led by Janet, who took one look at me and left Brightman in charge to follow me. I expected Hammond to send someone else, but it seemed he had decided that we could work together pretty well. I didn’t have time to dwell on it though, so I dismissed the thought for now and kept walking.

I stormed into the village looking for the son of a bitch; he was going to learn what I looked like when I was positively pissed-off. I grabbed his sorry ass and threw him to the floor, threatening him with my Beretta.

I heard Daniel and Carter trying to tell me to stop. I’m not entirely sure, but I think Daniel told Janet to do something, because the next thing I heard was Janet’s voice.

“Daniel, you aren’t the one who’s going to tell McCoy’s husband that she was killed in her first mission after their wedding, or Jenkins’ little kids that daddy is not coming home. We have another twelve casualties including Norton who will probably lose his right leg, and Martin who most probably suffers medulla damage. These are his men injured, permanently damaged, or dead. And that’s ignoring the thousands of people that are going to die with the planet. I honestly don’t have the slightest idea of what to say to stop him.”

“Stop, please! I am truly sorry for what has happened. You must believe me, Malchus has acted without my knowledge. He will be punished. Please! More death serves no one!” Elrad pleaded.

“More death is exactly what you people are gonna get,” I glowered at him, standing up and storming again this time out of the village. The other four followed me as fast as they could.

“I left Alisen in charge of the evacuation. The injured should be at the SGC by now and I left her my instructions to Dr. Warner for Norton’s and Martin’s surgery. They are the most critical; everyone else should make a full recovery with the appropriate treatment,” Janet reported in her doctor voice on the way to the gate.

“Good. Have everyone ready to leave. I’ll stay with the cleaning crew. As soon as we’ve picked up our guys, we’re leaving,” I answered sharply.

“Hammond was assembling the crew when we gated here. He was going to send them in as soon as they were ready, so they’re probably already in the planet. I told Alisen to send them to the rocket immediately,” Janet told me. “The evacuation must be almost complete, but I can take care of everything left if you plan to join them, sir.”

“Thanks. Good job, doc,” I answered in a professional voice. She was using her professional voice and manners to get me back into my own professional persona. I was grateful for her silent support especially as I could feel Carter’s and Daniel’s eyes on me, judging me. I could hear their brains rambling and trying to come up with arguments to stay on the planet, to try and find another way to save these people.

When we finally arrived at the gate, Janet took over from Brightman and completed the evacuation, leaving only SG1, the cleaning crew, and herself on K’Tau. Meanwhile, Daniel and Carter pleaded their case. I finally agree to let them try. I ordered Carter back to the SGC with Janet so she could try to come up with a new plan to fix the sun; and sent Daniel and Teal’c back to the village and try to convince them to evacuate the planet.

A few minutes later, I changed my mind, and joined them in the village. I found them in their church with Daniel making a poor attempt to get them to agree to relocate to another planet. Angry at the situation, and at the Asgard for playing gods, which was going to kill these people, I decided for a more direct approach, and tried to explain the villagers that the Asgard were nothing but tiny, little grey aliens. Obviously, it didn’t work. Trying to rationalize with civilizations knee deep in their religion is virtually impossible most of the time. It’s not as if I hadn’t seen the consequences of blind beliefs on Earth a bunch of times.

Daniel got angry at me for questioning their belief system, but I only got angrier at the Asgard for playing gods.

“I’m going to join in the cleaning effort. When we’re done, we’re leaving with or without the K’Tau people. Got it, Daniel? If you can’t convince them to leave by then, then it’s officially not my problem anymore. So you can try again, and again, and again… up until then,” I told the archeologist, knowing that he probably wanted to try again. “And while you’re at it, leave a message to the almighty Asgard on my name: next time they have a bug problem, I may decide that we lowly humans shouldn’t interfere with their superior business,” I ordered him in an angry voice.

“Jack, you can’t be serious? Tell me you’re kidding, please,” he argued against my orders. Really, this arguing it’s getting old, fast.

“No, Daniel, I’m not kidding. I’m being completely serious. Try to convince the K’Tau people to relocate, and leave a message in the Asgard answering machine. It’s an order!” I repeated in a low, cold voice to prove the archeologist that the time for arguing against me was over.

“Jack, you’re making a mistake,” he kept arguing. Obviously, he was not listening or he was refusing to acknowledge the chain of command.

“It’s my command, therefore my mistake to make. You can obey my orders or gate back to Earth now. Are we clear? You are a member of my team; you are expected to follow my orders. If you can’t do it, then you can’t be part of SG1. Are we clear, Daniel?” I growled.

This ignoring my command thing was getting out of hand. I had to ground Carter after the incident with Orlin for two weeks, and have her do a whole bunch of crappy paperwork and inventory work. Finally, after two weeks of extremely boring and tiresome work, she admitted that jumping through the junk-gate after the alien was a stupid move, and apologized for disobeying my order. Since then, she seemed to have adapted her attitude and remembered how to see the difference between when she should argue with me, present me with different alternatives, and when was the time to shut up and do as ordered. She was back to being the great second-in-command she had always been. Teal’c fortunately had made amends after the incident with Apophis, and had gone back to being the reliable Jaffa warrior he had always been too. On the other hand, Daniel’s arguing and attitude was getting worse. While most of the time we could work perfectly well together, at times like this things would get out of hand easily. I was starting to think that there was an underlying problem, that something was happening to him, and arguing with me was simply an outlet. Anyway, even if it was true, I didn’t have time for that now; it’d have to wait until we were done with this mission.

He took a few moments to still his thoughts, and finally nodded grumpily, kind of like a kid that had been sent to bed after pleading for an extra minute. He took off walking towards Edgar with Teal’c in tow. I had to agree with him, Edgar was their best shot at getting these people out of the planet.

Not fifteen minutes later, I joined the cleaning crew at the rocket site. They had already bagged the bodies and anything that could be their personal effects; and were now slowly working on dismantling the ruins of the rocket. A few small, controlled blasts on my side and some cool machinery on the engineers’ part and it was done in a few hours.

I left them to transport the debris to the gate, and with the help of a young lieutenant and a FRED, I took the bodies home.

The coroners took over the bodies as soon as we crossed the gate, and after a shower and my post-mission check-up, I joined Janet in my base quarters for the night.

The next morning, Carter had her plan B ready. She thought we could repeat the process that introduced the plutonium in K’Tau’s sun with the Maclarium, the super-heavy element that she had wanted to send with the rocket. Apparently the only thing we had to do was dial the gate to K’Tau, send the Maclarium, and shut it down after a few seconds when the element was crossing through the sun. The probability of this plan working was pretty low, but the alternative was letting those people die. The cleaning crew had sent the last branch of rocket pieces, and they gated themselves home sometime during the night. The general and I agreed to try, and Carter and I geared up to gate to K’Tau immediately after executing her plan.

Carter and I met in the village with Daniel and Teal’c in time to see the villagers pray to Freyr for help, or forgiveness, pleading for their salvation. The sun was still red; we’d failed to fix it and the Asgard weren’t going to help. There was not going to be any salvation for them, only death. By our estimation, K’Tau isn’t a very populated planet; it only had a few thousands of people… it could have been worse, it could have housed millions.

I crossed imaginary fingers in my head, and wished one last time that my bluff to the Asgard had worked. While Daniel said our goodbyes to Elrad, the sun suddenly went back to normal. Yep, it worked. Good. They did the right thing; they saved these people.

I let Daniel talk with Elrad a little bit longer to try to establish a friendly relationship with them. They have an Asgard phone that we may need in the future. I’m more than willing to trade with them, or give them our help if they ever need it, as long as we have access to it, and Malchus gets punished for what he did. I told Elrad that we would send SG9 to negotiate a treaty between our worlds, and we left K’Tau.

* * *

 

It was two days later, when Thor decided to visit the SGC. He beamed into Hammond’s office asking to talk with SG1. I had been in my office working on the letters for McCoy’s and Jenkins’ families, and I didn’t know what the general wanted. But as soon as I got to the briefing room and saw Thor seated by the general, I understood the urgency in the general’s call.

“Hey, Thor, long time no see,” I said sarcastically. “I’m glad you’ve decided to visit. I wanted to say: thanks for doing the right thing. I mean, I know you people did it because you’re afraid of the techno-bugs, but still you did the right thing. Good job.”

I heard Daniel groan behind me. It was the kind of groan that tells me he thinks I’m being stupid or about to screw up. _Well, Danny-boy, lesson of the day: fear is a powerful weapon; and everything is afraid of something_.

“The High Council feared you would make good of your threats. When I suggested subterfuge, they agreed immediately,” the alien commander admitted.

I nodded looking thoughtful and got an evidence plastic bag out of my pocket. I put it on the table, in front of the alien while I slowly sat down beside him. The bag contained the dog tags of the two SG6 members lost in K’Tau, their wedding bands, and two tiny, little baby bootees that Jenkins would carry as lucky charms. _Time to make a point, my alien friend._

“The thing is, Thor, that your people were playing gods and that made the K’Tau people unable to accept our help; they were going to die with their sun. Some of them were even pretty radical and killed two of my men,” I explained in an unfriendly voice.

“The High Council sends its apologies and condolences. They are saddened by your losses. And so I am, O’Neill,” Thor answered honestly.

“Good. We are friends; we help each other, and now we have an Asgard phone. When we call you, we do it because lives are at stake. I’m sure we can both agree to work secretly to save those lives without the Goa’uld knowing about it. Don’t you think, my friend?” My voice was warmer but not really friendly yet.

“I am confident that you won’t leave my people to die at the replicators’ hands, but the High Council does not know you like I do, O’Neill. I already suggested this course of action, and it was approved,” the alien agreed easily.

“Good. Glad we have an agreement,” I said with a sarcastic smile. “But Thor, if I ever have to chose between your people and Earth, there will be no question. I’m sure you know this.”

“O’Neill, we are both warriors, we both would do what necessary to protect our people. We knew you were capable of protecting Earth when we chose you as our ambassador for your planet. The High Council simply miscalculated and forgot that your need to fight for the lives and freedom of people is not constricted to your planet, or your species, something proven by Teal’c’s presence in your team. I never made that mistake. Now they understand and our collaboration with each other will be better.”

“Good,” I answered, this time with an honest smile. Talking with Thor was always easier than with any of the other Asgards. He nodded in that weird Asgard way telling me that the Asgard-Tau’ri relations were back on track. “But you should tell Freyr to stay away from me for a while.”

“I don’t think he will want to be near you in the near future, O’Neill. He is sure you blame him for Malchus’ actions and he fears you. I also mentioned Doctor Fraiser being your mate when I heard of her presence on K’Tau. I asked him and the Council how they thought you would have reacted if she had been hurt by Malchus’ actions. Chief Archon was most rattled by the revelation too. I do not think you will have to deal with Asgard politics for some time, O’Neill.”

“I guess paper-pusher bureaucrats and politicians are pretty much the same no matter the planet or species,” I said laughing softly, and I swear Thor did too, in his own way.

* * *

 

As soon as Thor left the base in his white beam back to his ship, Jack left the briefing room and went back to his office.

“Okay… what the hell just happened?” Daniel asked to the others with a shocked expression on his face.

“O’Neill is a great negotiator, DanielJackson. He and Thor are both warriors. They understand each other; they can easily reach an agreement,” Teal’c explained in his always calm manner.

“Yes, but did they make fun of politicians?” the archeologist asked stunned.

“So it seems, Doctor,” General Hammond answered him with a smile. It was obvious that he saw the humor in the situation.

* * *

 

Sam joined Janet in the cafeteria for lunch that day. She was still a little stunned by Thor’s visit. If there’s something she never expected to see, it was her CO and the Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet make fun of politicians. It sure was an interesting morning.

“Hey, Janet, how are you?” she asked the doctor seating down in front of her.

“I’m good, thanks. And you?”

“Good. A little stunned still to be honest,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah, I’ve heard about Thor’s visit. I’m not surprised, though. Jack’s a very good strategist, and one of the things he always says is: fear is a weapon, and everything fears something,” Janet answered using a funny voice to imitate the colonel.

“Yeah, I know. It’s not that he bluffed his way out of the situation against the Asgard; it’s seeing him and Thor make a joke about politics. That’s the real shocker for me. I swear Thor laughed… well, in an Asgard not-so-much-of-a-laugh kind of way… but…” Sam confessed to the doctor.

Janet laughed. The irony of finding out that the alien had a sense of humor more shocking than the fact that this powerful race needed Jack enough to give in to his demands was not lost to the doctor. “I’ve heard. Daniel described the moment to me in detail, in great detail.”

“He was pretty stunned too,” Sam agreed. “You know, Chief Archon and Freyr are very afraid of what the colonel could do to them if something were to happen to you because of them. I think by now the whole galaxy knows that you’re ‘mates’. I hope it doesn’t bother you.”

“No, it doesn’t bother me. I think it’s kinda funny. I keep imagining these really powerful but tiny aliens cowering in their big chairs, looking terrified because their tiny friend Thor is telling them that Jack’s ‘mate’ had been at risk and he’s really cranky. I’m wondering if next time they argue, I’ll get the Asgard version of chocolates to get me to intercede for them with Jack,” Janet dismissed Sam’s worry with an honest smile.

“In that case, don’t eat the yellow blocks. They taste terrible,” Sam joked, and Janet laughed. She had heard all about Asgard’s “food” when the major returned from Othala after helping save it from the replicators over a year ago.

“It’s not as if people didn’t know here, you know. You have no idea how polite people are to me. Aside from SG1, Ferretti, and Dixon, everyone is extremely polite and respectful to me, not that they weren’t before but… now there’s a certain amount of fear behind it. No one has looked at me twice, let alone flirted with me since we started dating. Even the newbies seem to learn about it, the moment they get into the base.”

“They are afraid of the Colonel,” Sam guessed and smirked.

“You have no idea!” Janet exclaimed. “Before transferring here, Reynolds visited the Academy Hospital due to a minor injury, he asked me out, and of course, I told him that I was dating someone. He hadn’t been here 24 hours when he visited the infirmary to ‘make sure that we were okay, there were no bad feelings between us’. I reassured him, but I had a hard time not laughing at him. Ferretti and Dixon are still messing with his head.”

“Oh, that’s why he avoids Colonel O’Neill,” Sam answered laughing. “He probably thinks the colonel would kill him or something.”

“Jack had sparred with him a few times. He needs better hand-to-hand combat skills and some practice after so long in Area 51. But I don’t think Jack had told him that, and Dixon told him it was because he asked me out… and Ferretti didn’t really help when he told him that Jack is a very jealous guy,” the doctor let her friend in the joke.

“It’s amusing to see these big, badass jarheads and special ops guys terrified of me. I control the big needles which are a pretty effective threat, but if they don’t behave, I wink or smile at them, and their face goes white as a sheet. You can actually see fear in their eyes when they realize that Jack could think they were flirting with me. They turn into perfect little patients. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t work with SG1; you’re my most regular patients.”

“Sorry, we actually know that you only have eyes for the colonel,” Sam answered unapologetically.

“Yeah, must be that,” Janet answered dryly.

“Is he really that jealous?” the scientist asked sounding a little concerned.

“No, that’s just a scare-the-newbies story. I’ve even caught Teal’c using it. Jack finds it hilarious,” Janet said reassuringly. “I admit I find the idea of Thor using the don’t-mess-with-Jack O’Neill’s-mate tactic with the Asgard High Council pretty hilarious myself.”

“It is funny, you’re right,” Sam said and laughed softly. “So… seeing as the galaxy knows about you two, and you seem good with it, are you ever going to make it official?”

“Oh, I’m not helping you with the bet,” Janet answered with a smile and stood up to go back to work.

“Well… it was worth a try,” the blonde said to the doctor’s back. She was happy for her friend, and for the colonel. It had been hard getting over her feelings for her CO, but it had been the right decision. She never wanted those feelings, and they seemed really happy and well suited for each other.

Now, if she just could make a little of cash out of it…

* * *

 

 **Note:** Dr. Brightman didn’t have a name so I called her Alisen because the actress who played the role was Alisen Down.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think :)


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